Death Walked The Earth
by The Silent Scream
Summary: The walking dead hit Sunnydale, and it's up to the Slayer and her friends to stop them before they overwhelm the town. This might not be as easy as they think though... Willow / OC est. relationship, rating for violence and foul language.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: Gosh, this week has been way too busy so far. Hence why I only post this now instead of on Monday as promised. This one was fun to write, and as you can probably guess, it was inspired a bit by The Walking Dead ;D The title comes from a song of the Finnish band Insomnium – check them out :)

Disclaimer: None of the characters used from Buffy: The Vampire Slayer are mine. Just borrowing them for a bit :D

* * *

Death Walked the Earth

The room was mostly quiet, and almost fully dark, the only light coming from the scented candles which had been put up on various flat surfaces, the only noises being the soft rustling of the bed sheet which came up whenever one of the two women on the bed moved, and the even softer sounds they involuntarily produced every now and then, either by kissing or due to the tender touches they were exchanging.

"Mmmm", Willow let out after a while, forcing her eyes open as she just had been lying back for a while, feeling her partner's hands move over her body while they had been kissing deeply, "that's so nice. Finally we got time for that… for us."

"About time, too", her lover rumbled in reply, her lust making her voice even deeper and hoarser than usual; smirking, Willow pulled her down for another kiss, then moaned into her mouth when the taller woman's hand slid between her legs, the redhead almost automatically arching her back to give her easier access.

Pulling back from the kiss, she let out another, this time slightly louder and longer moan as her partner continued her tender touch; her nails dug into the black haired woman's back as a shiver ran through her, the way she panted out her lover's name making Pat's good eye glisten with passion.

"Goddess, yes", the redhead groaned after a few more minutes had passed, minutes during which the demon had given her best to make her explode with what she was doing between her legs; her nails dug into the taller woman's back again, then she grit her teeth as she pressed out her final moan, slumping back down on the mattress afterwards, her whole body glistening with sweat.

"Oh wow", she finally managed to pant out, giving her lover a tired, but happy look, "you tired me out."

"Just what I had in mind", the demon smirked, moving so she ended up lying next to her girlfriend and grimacing a bit when she now felt the scratches the witch had left on her back, "now you'll be relaxed tomorrow at campus, right?"

"More than that", Willow giggled, snuggling up to her and smiling when she was immediately taken into a loving embrace, "I'll be so relaxed, I won't even care if they give me dire news."

"They won't", Pat gave back at once, moving one hand to play with her partner's hair idly and making her smile widen, "come on, you know that."

"Yeah, but I was gone for a long time", the redhead reminded her of her lengthy absence, "I mean, first I was in England, then that crazy guy was after you and then we had that whole trouble when his spell hit you. I should have gone there like a week ago already."

"Yeah, but you're one of their best students", Pat shrugged, clearly not as worried about this as her loved one was, "they're not gonna do anything that might make you leave and go somewhere else."

"Once again you demonstrate that you have much more confidence than I do", the witch giggled in reply, making her partner chuckle throatily as well; then, Pat shrugged and leaned closer to her for a quick, but gentle kiss, making her smile once more afterwards by asking if she should pick her up from the campus once she'd gotten done talking to the professors there.

"Of course", the witch replied at once, "you know I love it when you pick me up. If only so I can giggle at the stares of the freshmen when they see petite, cute me getting picked up by a tall scary woman with an eyepatch."

"Yeah, they stare in the drollest way", Pat dryly replied, then smirked, her next words making the redhead giggle once again. "Hey, remember that one guy who just was about to ask you out when I strolled up to you and gave you this big fat smack right on the mouth? For a moment, I thought he'd faint."

"Oh Goddess, yes", Willow managed to say between giggles, "that poor guy, I felt really bad for him. He couldn't look me in the eye for two weeks after that. And when he finally was able to do that again, he apologized to me, because he thought he offended me somehow."

"Well, I would have been offended if he had made another try to ask you out after he saw that", Pat smirked, "because I'm selfish and don't want to share you."

"I don't want that, either", Willow reassured her, claiming and receiving another kiss afterwards; then, she snuggled closer to her partner and contently closed her eyes, letting out a small sigh when the demon's fingers started moving through her hair again.

"I love you", she mumbled sleepily after a while, her eyes already halfway closed; still a smile curled her lips when the taller woman told her in a low voice that she loved her, too, then advised her to get some sleep and wished her a good night, prompting her to return that wish before she let her eyes slip close fully and quickly drifted off into dreamland.

* * *

In the next morning, the couple got up together, something which mildly surprised Willow, since usually, her partner preferred sleeping in when she didn't have any obligations; this gave her another chance to witness the grumpiness Pat always displayed in early mornings though, and she was honest enough with herself to admit that she even had missed that while she had been off in England.

"I better get the coffee machine started", she smirked at her partner, watching how Pat flopped down on the nearest chair and nodded in silent agreement, then snatched the pack of cigarettes from the kitchen table and lit one of them up, looking a tiny bit less grumpy after the first few drags.

"Oh my", the redhead observed at the same time, after she had finished getting the coffee machine ready and the dark liquid was starting to run through, giving her time to peer into the fridge, "we really have to go buy groceries today. There's no eggs left, and I wanted to make ham and eggs…"

"Sucks", Pat grumbled, making her partner smile while she nodded; figuring that, if ham and eggs were not an option, toast would do, she found several glasses of jam in the fridge and put them on the table, then moved to put the bread into the toaster, amused by the way her girlfriend kept watching the coffee machine, as if staring at it would make the coffee get done faster.

"You know, you didn't have to get up with me", she pointed out as she moved over to where the taller woman was sitting and taking a seat on her lap, even managing to make her smile weakly by putting both arms around her neck, "you don't have to go to the Magic Box or anything, right?"

"Nope", the demon grumbled in reply, taking another drag of her cigarette and giving the coffee machine a baleful glare, the appliance clearly taking too long for her liking to finish its job, "but I wanna be ready and awake for your call. To pick you up."

"How cute", Willow smiled in reply, moving one hand to ruffle her hair, "you know I appreciate that. I know how much you hate to get up so early."

She only earned another grunt in reply, giggling again; then, a mischief glint entered her eyes and she leaned closer to the taller woman, her voice a low purr when she spoke on, her words prompting the demon to perk up. "And I'm gonna show you how much I appreciate that, exactly, when we're back home after you picked me up."

"Sounds tempting", Pat mumbled, then smirked, the witch's promise clearly having helped to wake her up, "will I get something extra if I go grocery shopping while you're gone?"

"Sure", the redhead winked, eliciting a low, rumbling chuckle from her girlfriend; she smiled at her again, then kissed her briefly before she got up again, realizing that the coffee machine had fallen silent and that thus, the coffee was done.

"Here we go", she stated, moving over to the cupboard and finding two cups inside, "this should help wake you up fully, I made it strong, just the way you like it."

She had been expecting Pat to remain where she was, and thus was mildly surprised when she turned around and found the demon standing right behind her; with a little smirk at the look on her face, the taller woman took one of the cups from her, then moved to the fridge and got a bottle of milk from it while Willow got their sugar tin from yet another cupboard, knowing her girlfriend wouldn't drink the coffee without the ungodly amounts of sugar she always poured into it.

"That's the stuff", Pat mumbled after she had done just that and had added a splash of milk, looking content after taking the first sip of the coffee; a second later, the bread was popped out of the toaster, being done as well, and the couple sat down to have a proper breakfast, the demon by now capable of proper conversation, as she proved after wolfing down the first slice of bread with a generous portion of jam on it.

"So", she started, making Willow look up from her own food and at her, "you're gonna talk to all your profs today? Or just a few?"

"I thought I'd have to", the redhead replied, "but I asked the dean, and she said it'd be enough if I have a meeting with her first. I guess they want to make this easy for me, they probably worry I'm gonna drop out after being gone for so long."

"Told you so", Pat smirked at once, "they don't want that to happen. You're like their poster child."

"No, I'm not", Willow protested at once, "I'm just a good student, that's all."

"You're good at selling yourself short", Pat replied, unimpressed by her protest, "I mean, come on, Honey, is there any other student there right now going not for one, but two PhDs?"

"Well, I guess not", the witch sighed after thinking about this for a moment, "at least none that I know of."

"See", Pat shrugged, figuring that she had made her point, "no way in Hell they'd wanna lose that. Looks good in their yearbooks or whatever."

"I'll just believe you now", Willow decided in reply, smiling slightly again, "because then I'll feel confident and secure of myself when I go in there to face this woman. I know I have no reason to, but I still feel awkward whenever I have to deal with such authority figures, you know…?"

"You're right, you have no reason to", Pat agreed at once, giving her a loving smile that made her heart still beat faster, even after all those years, "but in case you freak out, or this woman gives you grief after all, just call me and I'll come running, okay?"

"Of course", the witch nodded at once, the taller woman's smile widening momentarily in reply; then, holding her partner's gaze, the redhead added "thanks" in a much softer and more serious voice, reaching over the table to grasp her partner's hand, this sudden change of her mood surprising, but not disturbing the other woman.

"You always find the right words to make me feel better", Willow let her know, reaching up with her free hand to caress her cheek tenderly, "no matter what I'm bothered about."

"That's part of my job description", Pat smirked, making the redhead smile as well; she nodded, then leaned in for a tender kiss, both of them focusing on finishing their breakfast afterwards, the mood now relaxed and happy again, just as both of them preferred it at such an early hour.


	2. Chapter 2

By the time she reached the campus, Willow was feeling nervous again, taking a moment to remind herself of her partner's words – surely her prolonged absence would have no negative consequences, not with her being a model student who not only aced all her classes, but was ahead in most of them, as well.

Still, her heart hammered harder in her chest when she spotted the administration building up ahead; she took in a deep breath, then quickly pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and flipped it open, her fingers moving over the buttons with rather impressive speed as she typed in a message to her partner.

_Not freaking out, _she typed, not wanting the demon to come rushing to her side just because her heart beat a bit faster, _but tell me again how smart and everything I am?_

Nervously, she fiddled with her phone as she waited for the reply, idly pondering if Pat already had left to do the grocery shopping and if she had taken her cell phone along; and then, a minute after she had sent the message, the phone vibrated in her hand, signalling to her that the answer had just come in.

_Rock 'em, _the demon had written, making the witch smile, _remember, you're awesome. Love you._

To her happiness, the text worked just as she had hoped it would when she had sent hers – she felt much calmer again, almost a bit giddy as she read the short text once more, not blaming her partner for the lack of length, well aware of the fact that typing such messages into her phone was one of the things Pat really couldn't stand doing, always cursing the tiny buttons which made it impossible for her to type a single word without having to delete at least one mistake.

_Thanks, _she quickly wrote back, having much less trouble with that than her partner usually had, _needed to read that. Love you too & see you later._

After the phone had told her that the message had been sent, she snapped it close and tugged it back into her pocket; then, with another deep breath, she entered the building and made her way to the second floor, where the dean's office was located.

Before she knocked the wooden door leading to said office, she stopped and listened, not wanting to walk in on another talk or do something equally embarrassing; when the office remained silent, she knocked, frowning when no response came.

Suddenly worried if she had written the time for her appointment with the dean down wrong, Willow dug out the small piece of paper and checked it, then looked at her watch; she was five minutes early, but she figured that the dean wouldn't come in the last possible minute before their meeting, her frown deepening as she asked herself if she should wait or just open the door and take a peek inside.

_Be bold, _she told herself, _you're smart and confident, so just take a look, if the dean's busy with something, she'll let you know and if not, you won't stand out here like an idiot. _

Nodding to herself, she grasped the door handle and pushed it down; at least, she thought to herself as she opened the door, the office wasn't locked, so if the dean wasn't there yet, maybe held up by traffic or something, she could wait—

Her gaze fell on the chair standing behind the heavy wooden desk, and her breath got caught in her throat, her heart performing an almost painful summersault in her chest; all she could do for a few moments was stand and stare, her brain struggling to process what her eyes were showing her. In the chair behind the desk, the dean sat, or at least what was still left of her; her face looked as if wild animal had gnawed on it, chunks of flesh and one eye missing, and from what she could see from the rest of the elder woman's body, Willow could easily figure out that her face wasn't the only part which had been eaten from.

Finally, despite her shock, her knowledge about how to handle such situations kicked in, and she quickly stepped into the office and closed the door before anyone else might see what had happened to the poor woman; from the wounds, she could tell at once that this hadn't been a regular murder, and that the police would be able to do much here, thus calling the first person which popped into her mind whenever something supernatural occurred.

"Willow", Buffy greeted her with mild surprise in her voice, "aren't you at college?"

"Yes, I am", the redhead gave back, unable to keep the tremble out of her voice, "but... Buffy, something happened here, I entered the dean's office and she's dead, she looks as if someone… ate her."

"Oh my God", the Slayer gave back, momentarily stunned as well, then asking herself why it seemed that her friends always appeared to be where such horrible things were happening, "I'm on my way, I'll be there as fast as I can. Are you calling Pat?"

"Yes", Willow gave back, "I'll do that right away, and then I'll wait here… or maybe in front of the door so no one else comes in and sees this."

"Good plan", Buffy agreed, "take care until then, and see you in a few."

"Yes", the witch replied once more, then ended the call; right after the connection had been cut off, she pushed the speed dial button for her partner's number, relieved when the call was taken after the first ring.

"Need me to come?" Pat asked before she could say anything, "that was a quick talk."

"There was no talk", Willow gave back, keeping her eyes away from the gruesome corpse of the dean, "I already called Buffy and she's on her way here…" She trailed off as she realized that she wasn't making sense to her partner, clearing her throat and her mind before she started over, telling the demon what she had found and hearing her sharp intake of breath on the other end of the line.

"Get out of that office", Pat told her the moment she had finished, "and wait outside. Make sure the door's closed. Are there any other rooms you can reach from there?"

"There's one other door", Willow gave back, the urgent tone in her partner's voice not unnoticed by her, "to some closet I guess, why? You think the thing which did that is still here?"

"No idea, but I don't want you to take any risks", Pat replied at once, "so please go outside and wait in the hallway, I'm on my way already."

"Alright", Willow gave back, and that was when the hand landed on her shoulder and she shrieked in shock, loud enough to make Pat's ears ring, the phone slipping out of her grasp and falling to the floor, leaving the demon to curse at her own cell when the connection was cut off, without giving her partner a chance to tell her what just had happened.


	3. Chapter 3

"Shht, shht", the girl which had nearly given Willow a heart attack tried to make her calm down again, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you, I thought you heard me, oh God I'm so scared… Help me, please…"

"Hnngh", Willow let out in reply, then briefly closed her eyes in an attempt to calm down, finding herself able to talk again moments later, "I mean… Jeez, you scared me."

"Sorry", the girl apologized again, then her gaze flickered to the dead dean and she swallowed, the witch only now realizing how pale the girl was and her bloodshot eyes, showing that she had either thrown up or cried – or maybe even both.

"Are you from the police?" the girl now asked her, unable to keep her eyes away from the dead dean, "I don't remember if I called them, I wanted to when I found her but then I freaked out…"

"No, I'm not from the police", the redhead gave back after thinking about lying for a moment, just to get the girl out of there, then deciding against it, "I was supposed to meet the dean here today, but, well…"

"The poor woman", the girl replied, shivering as she looked at the corpse once more; nodding, Willow looked around the office, suddenly feeling uneasy as she remembered her partner's words, thus making a vague gesture at the door and asking the girl to step outside with her.

"I called someone who knows about such… things", she added while she opened the door, "they're on the way here… and now I need to call my girlfriend again and tell her I'm alright, or she'll think something killed me."

"Oh, so you were talking to her when I startled you, I'm so sorry", the girl apologized again, obviously glad to get out of the office; she stepped outside on the hallway while the witch bent down to pick up her phone, already dialling her partner's number again while she moved to the girl's side and closed the office door behind herself.

"What the fuck just happened", Pat greeted her, making her smile slightly as she could hear the relief in her partner's voice, an emotion which only grew when Willow answered her. "A girl popped up behind me and scared the heck out of me. Sorry for shrieking into your ear like that. And also, language."

"Don't worry about my ear", the demon replied at once, and from the way her breath was a bit faster than usual, Willow figured that she was running as she talked, probably grateful about her demon stamina, "are you okay? And what girl?"

"I'm fine", the redhead reassured her at once, "and the girl found the poor dean before I did, she must have been hiding somewhere. Scared me so bad when she suddenly grabbed me, I thought I'd have a heart attack."

"I nearly had one too when you suddenly shrieked into my ear", Pat dryly replied, her voice softening as she spoke on, her words making the witch smile again. "I'm glad you're okay though. I was really worried."

"I think that, whatever did this, is gone by now", Willow tried to calm her down in reply, "but who knows where it went, so please hurry, okay?"

"Will do", Pat promised her, then told her to take care before she ended the call; while she snapped the phone shut and put it back into her pocket, glad it hadn't taken any damage when it had fallen to the floor, Willow noticed the way the girl was staring at her, holding back the urge to frown and making herself smile at her instead as she asked her if there was anything she could help her with.

"Um, no, not really", the girl gave back after a few moments of just staring at her a bit more, "just… um… could I stay here with you until someone who knows what to do comes along? I'm still freaked out."

"Of course", Willow reassured her once, understanding her perfectly well – it had been years ago that she had had her first contact with anything supernatural, but she still remembered well how it had felt, how shocked and scared she had been.

"My girlfriend is on the way here, she knows about such stuff", she thus added, hoping this would help to calm down the girl down, even though she had to held back the urge to laugh when the girl looked at her with wide eyes in reply and asked her if her girlfriend was a policewoman.

"No", she let her know once she could be sure she wouldn't laugh, not wanting to offend the girl, "but trust me, she knows what such things are about. Another friend of mine is on the way, as well."

"Alright", the girl shrugged after considering this for a moment, then her eyes wide went, something she quickly explained before Willow could ask her what was going on with her next words. "Oh, and I'm so rude! My name is Joanne, thanks for letting me wait here with you, I'm really freaked out…"

"No problem", Willow reassured her, "and it's nice to meet you, Joanne, I'm Willow."

"Oooh", the younger girl let out in reply, giving the redhead a wide-eyed look which prompted her to raise an eyebrow, "you're that super student who'd gone off to England, right?"

"Um, yes", the redhead replied after a moment, wrecking her brain as she tried to figure out if she was sharing a class with Joanne, even though the girl seemed to be too young for that and looked more like a freshman, "do we have a class together?"

"Oh, no, no", Joanne gave back at once, "but I'm seeing one of the older guys, and he has a class with you, and he mentioned it when one of his friends asked him if he had seen you, because you'd been gone for a while. Why did you go there?"

"Family matters", the redhead let her know after a second, slightly stunned now – after all, she never would have thought that she'd be a topic of gossip on campus. She didn't exactly separate herself from the other students, having friendly conversations with them and sharing mindless small talk, also about topics which were not related to her classes, but still she never had grown close enough to anyone to make her think that they'd actually wonder where she was if she wouldn't show up for a while.

"Oh, I hope everything is okay", the girl now distracted her from those thoughts, "with your family, I mean."

"Yes, thank you", the witch replied at once, giving her another calming smile; she didn't feel like having small talk with Joanne, not after finding the dean dead and partially eaten, but she figured that the younger girl needed this distraction now and didn't have the heart to tell her off.

"Good", Joanne beamed at her, then fell silent; her gaze moved to the office door again, and she shuddered visibly – before apparently, something else hit her, since she looked up again and at the redhead, sounding a bit hesitant when she spoke up again. "Um, can I ask you something?"

"Sure", Willow replied at once, forced to bite her tongue a moment later as Joanne did just that, the question so unexpected and hilarious that it nearly made her laugh despite her best tries to hold it back.

"Well", the younger girl started, shuffling her feet nervously, "this boy I'm seeing said that your girlfriend is really scary. Is she really?"

"I can see why people who don't know her would think that", the witch gave back, not able to hold back a slight giggle after all, "but she's really not. She just looks scary. She's quite tall and..., oh there she is!"

With those words, she waved to both Buffy and Pat as they came trotting up the stairway side by side; the taller woman waved back at her, and for a moment, Willow managed to see her through the eyes of someone who didn't know her, immediately realizing why other people might think of her as scary – she was quite the sight after all, tall and with a wiry built that spoke of hidden strength, the sharp lines of her face and the eyepatch not helping with making her look any less dangerous.

Spotting her, they both waved back at her, then sped up their steps; and half a minute later they had caught up to the two, the taller woman immediately asking her partner if she was alright.

"Yes, I'm fine", Willow reassured her, "just got quite the scare when I found the poor dean. And when Joanne grabbed me from behind."

"Still sorry about that", Joanne meekly gave back, to the witch's amusement giving the demon quite an uneasy look; to her relief though, Pat just smiled at her and didn't try to reprimand her for giving her girlfriend such a scare, instead asking her if she was okay, too, making her nod immediately.

"I just was quite freaked out", she then let the taller woman know, clearly warming up to her fast despite her alleged scariness, "I mean, it's not every day you find a dead woman in her office…"

"I know you're probably eager to get out of here", Buffy was the one to answer her this time, "but before you can do that I'd like to ask you some questions. If you're up to it, of course."

"Oh, sure", Joanne gave back at once, making the blonde smile at her, "will that help to find the one who did this? Are you from the police?"

"Something like that", Buffy lied at once, knowing that someone alerting the police would be the last thing they needed now – first, she at least needed to get a good look at the corpse, and check the office for hints which might tell them anything about what had been responsible for the dean's death.

"Pat?" she thus said, "let's go and take a look at this?"

"Sure", the demon agreed, then glanced at her girlfriend once more as if to make sure she really was okay, asking her if she'd wait out here with Joanne; nodding, Willow pulled her down for a brief kiss, then watched how she stepped into the office with the Slayer, giving her best to avoid looking at the dead dean once more.

"Oh jeez", Buffy mumbled the second she had done just that while Pat closed the door behind herself, "that's… gross. The poor woman."

"Indeed", the taller woman agreed, moving closer to the desk so she could get a proper look at the corpse, "sucky way to die. But at least it must have been fast, she didn't even get out of the chair."

Nodding, Buffy moved closer as well, studying the corpse and the spotless carpet around it for a few moments until she frowned and looked at the black haired woman, sounding mildly doubtful when she spoke up. "Isn't it odd that there's no blood? Not even on the carpet."

"Odd indeed", Pat agreed, frowning as well as she studied the clean carpet, "and it doesn't make a lick of sense. Look at that."

With those words, she pointed out a rather deep looking bite wound in the dean's neck; and even though it was quite gross, Buffy bent closer, her frown deepening as she asked herself what the demon was trying to point out to her; noticing her turmoil, Pat did her the favour of just saying it, making her glance away from the bite and up at her again. "That bite went right into her jugular. There should be a spray of the stuff all over the table, but there isn't."

"Good point", Buffy had to agree, "and I think it's a bit creepy you can tell that from just taking one look at that wound."

"Experience", Pat shrugged, straightening up again, her gaze darkening as she looked around the clean and orderly office once more, "and it bothers me that there's nothing out of the ordinary here. From those wounds, she got killed by something which was quite wild, so there should be a mess all over this place. But not even the papers on her desk are out of order."

"So what do you think?" Buffy wanted to know in reply, looking at the corpse again, "because I have the feeling you got an idea already."

"Yup, I do indeed", Pat smirked, making the blonde smile back at her, "namely that she wasn't killed here, but somewhere else and then placed here."

"But why would anyone do that?" Buffy pondered out loud, giving the corpse another look, "I mean, that's kinda… sick, right? And if some sort of wild demon or vampire killed the poor woman, who would bring her here then?"

"How am I supposed to know", the demon shrugged in reply, "but you have to admit, it makes more sense than her getting killed here."

"Indeed", Buffy sighed, "even though I wish I could—" The corpse let out a throaty, inhuman groan and sat up straight in the chair, prompting the blonde to let out a startled noise as she jumped back; next to her, Pat took back a step as well, her good eye widening while she automatically clenched her fists, watching in breathless silence how the corpse struggled to get up, clearly having trouble coordinating her movements.

"What the Hell", Buffy finally managed to press out, unable to look away from the awful jerky movements the dean was making, "I've seen dead people come back, as vampires, but that's not a vampire."

"Nope, it's not", Pat agreed, "and we better get rid of this fast, before it manages to stand up and attack us."

As if those words had been some sort of encouragement for the moving corpse, it let out another low grunt and managed to struggle to its feet; and seconds later, it fell back into the chair as Pat had punched it right in the face, grimacing at the feeling of her fist sinking into the soft flesh.

"Ew", she then commented, "be careful when you hit her. It's like hitting… something way too soft."

"I wish I'd brought a weapon", Buffy grumbled in reply, "I think the only way to kill… that kind of thing is by beheading, and I have nothing suitable to do that."

"You have me", Pat shrugged as an answer, then stepped closer to the corpse again before the Slayer could ask her what she planned to do – and momentarily surprised the blonde by grabbing the corpse's head and, with one powerful jerk, simply ripping it off, both Buffy and her flinching when the corpse reacted by bursting into dust, the head following suit a moment later, leaving Pat standing there with empty hands.

"Well", Buffy mumbled, "at least this answers the question of how to deal with the corpse. Good job there, even though it was quite violent."

"Demon", Pat smirked at her in reply, "I can be violent. Now we better go and talk to everyone's favourite Englishman so we can figure out what is going on, because I'm quite sure that this wasn't the only incident we'll be troubled by in the next few days."

"Pessimistic much?" Buffy wanted to know in reply, then sighed when the demon just raised an eyebrow at her, having to admit that she was probably right.

"Come on then", she thus added, "let's get out of here and annoy Giles so we can stop this before more damage than absolutely necessary is done."

Nodding in reply, Pat took one last look at the pile of dust the dean had turned into after her death; she shook her head to herself, suddenly sure that things would get much messier and unpleasant before this would be resolved, already mentally preparing herself for the new challenge up ahead.


	4. Chapter 4

"And she just turned to dust after you ripped of her head", Giles repeated what both Buffy and Pat just had told him, "even though she wasn't a vampire? Buffy, are you sure she wasn't?"

"Come on", the blonde replied, sounding mildly annoyed, "I've been the Slayer for how long now? I know a vampire when I see one, and this woman wasn't one."

"You wouldn't doubt us if you'd seen her", Pat added, briefly looking at her girlfriend next to her on the couch and giving her hand a reassuring squeeze before she went on, "she wasn't bumpy and game-faced like newly sired vampires usually are, and the way she moved… No vampire moves like that."

"Yeah, it was kinda… jerky", Buffy elaborated when Giles gave the demon a confused look, her description clearly not helping, "as if she wanted to move, but wasn't really sure how. Kinda like this." And with those words, she tried to imitate the movements of the dean, looking like someone with little or no dancing talent trying to do the robot; apparently, it got the picture across though despite how ridiculous it looked, since Giles looked quite worried now, as always when he was feeling that way taking off his glasses to clean them.

"And she had numerous bite wounds", he then asked, making the two women nod again before they exchanged an uneasy glance, not sure what to think of his reaction; to their dismay, he didn't tell them anything yet though, but merely let out a sigh – before he came to his feet and moved to one of the bookshelves, frowning as he looked at the volumes stored there.

"Um, not to be rude or anything", Pat finally was the one to break the silence which had formed, "but what exactly do you think this… thing was? You look as if that's really bad news."

"It is", Giles gave back, turning away from the shelf to look at her, "because from your retelling of the events and Buffy's… impression, I can only come up with one answer to that question."

"So? Spill", Buffy demanded when he didn't give them that answer while Willow exchanged a worried glance with her partner, "don't make it so mysterious."

"If my assumption is correct, and I'm afraid it is", Giles sighed in reply, "the dean apparently was turned into a zombie."

"A zombie", Pat echoed, "I thought those only exist in movies. Is there nothing which doesn't come true in this wretched town?"

"There are no leprechauns", Buffy replied, shrugging at the way Pat raised an eyebrow at her in response, "and that's not the first time we're up against zombies, Giles, so why do you look so worried?"

"The zombies we were fighting back then were raised by the mask your mother had brought into the house", Giles reminded her of the details of this previous encounter with the walking dead, "but if the dean displayed numerous bite marks, this might have been the reason for her return as one of the undead."

"Yeah, so?" Pat shrugged, clearly not seeing the problem the Watcher had with this, "she was bitten by something and it made her come back, where's the problem? We find this thing and kill it, there, problem solved."

"First, it might not be so easy to find the creature responsible for this", Giles primly told her, "and, if my worst assumptions about this is true, the bites are what is used to… infect others with the… disease, for lack of a better word."

"So if you get bitten, you come back as a zombie?" Willow wanted to know, frowning, "that's like in the movies. Quite tacky."

"But effective", the Watcher shrugged, "if she's been turned into this kind of zombie, her only desire before she was killed must have been food. And the moment she would have gotten her teeth into anyone, well…"

"But we don't know yet if getting bitten infects the victim", Pat pointed out, "so maybe we don't need to worry about that. Should we really assume the worst?"

"Yes", Buffy, Giles and Willow replied in surprising unison, making the demon raise an eyebrow, the witch letting out a short giggle before she smiled at her partner, making her sigh with her next words. "Haven't you been here long enough to learn that? In Sunnydale, it's always the worst possible thing."

"Good point", the taller woman gave back with another sigh, "but at least now, I'm not a feral, nasty version of myself, I suppose that's something."

"That's essential", Willow reassured her, making her smile as well; the couple beamed at each other for a moment, then shared a short, but tender kiss, only not letting it deepen because they both were aware of Giles and Buffy still in the room with them, the Slayer beaming happily at the two as they pulled apart again.

"It surely will make fighting whatever is responsible for this easier", the blonde then told her friends, "even though, seeing how you behaved in your feral time, we could have just set you on whatever thing it is."

"Yeah, and after I killed it, I might have turned on you", Pat replied with a roll of her good eye, "not one of your more stellar ideas, Buffy."

"It would have been worth a try", Buffy shrugged, not all too perturbed by the thought, "and you wouldn't have hurt Willow, I'm quite sure of that."

For a moment, Pat was reminded of the breakdown she'd had right after fighting off Malphas and his cronies; feeling her tense next to herself, Willow immediately sensed what she was thinking of and gave her hand a tender squeeze, smiling slightly when she felt the taller woman relax at once.

"We don't know yet what caused the poor dean's unfortunate condition", Giles now brought the talk back to the topic at hand, "so we should hit the books, as you young people like to say, and find out which type of creature might be responsible for this."

"I'm older than you", Pat found it necessary to point out while the Watcher already was removing books from the shelves; he merely reacted to her statement by giving her a look over the rim of his glasses, then started handing out books, the demon accepting hers with a sigh, only looking at the pages wearily when she opened the book and found that it was written in the tiny print she despised so much.

"Stupid books with their stupid tiny print", she grumbled under her breath, just loud enough to let Willow hear; giving her lover a sympathetic look, Willow squeezed her hand once more, then took the book Giles was handing out to her and opened it, not nearly as disturbed by the tiny print as her partner.

"So, we look for a mystical creature, demon or monster, which bites people and turns them into zombies that way", Buffy clarified as the Watcher handed her a book as well, "shouldn't take too long."

"I surely hope so", the demon grumbled in response while Giles finally finished handing out books and sat down again with one of his own; before he opened it though, he asked if anyone needed a refill of their drinks, only focusing on his book when everyone had told him that they were good, the room falling silent as the group went to work.


	5. Chapter 5

Several hours later, the possible culprits had been narrowed down to three demons, to the great relief of everyone; Giles had been planning to go on with the research, but since Pat's good eye was watering and running by now, he realized that it'd be useless and also a bit cruel to make her go on, and thus told the couple to go home, knowing that Willow would go on researching from there while the demon would have a chance to give her eye some rest.

"You know, that's one of the few moments I'm glad my eye starts acting up after reading that idiotic tiny print for a while", Pat commented as she left the Brit's house together with her partner, "because I'm quite sure we wouldn't be going home yet if it wasn't for that."

"Aw", Willow smiled in reply, grasping her hand again and holding it as they walked down the sidewalk together, "you make it sound as if Giles keeps us prisoner there. We could have just gone home without your eye getting all runny and watery."

"But Giles would have complained", Pat pointed out, using her free hand to dig out her cigarettes and lighter, to Willow's slight amusement managing to get one out of the pack and lighting it up without letting go of her hand, "and that way, he even said himself we should go home."

"And at home, I'll hit the books again right away", Willow let her know, briefly reaching into her pocket to make sure that the scrap of paper on which she had written down the names of the three possible demons was still there, "before anyone else gets halfway eaten by that thing and comes back to life."

"I really wonder if getting bitten by one of those undead things would turn the victim, as well", Pat pondered out loud in reply, "because that would really be annoying. Just think of all the zombie movies we've watched together and how fast that always spread."

"Luckily, those are movies and not real events, though", Willow gave back at once, not wanting to dwell on the unpleasant thoughts her girlfriend's words had put into her mind, "I doubt it would spread like that if a bite really does infect the victim. The police might be useful for once and put people who got bitten in quarantine."

"You put a lot of faith into Sunnydale's police", Pat smirked, taking a drag of her cigarette and blowing a cloud of blue-ish smoke to the sky before she went on. "And that after you've lived here all your life and have seen how incompetent they are."

"I just never give up hope", Willow giggled in reply, "and that reminds me, you know, Joanne thought you're from the police when I told her that you're coming and that you know about such stuff."

"I should be offended", the demon huffed in reply, "me, working for that bunch of imbeciles? Nuh-uh."

"If it helps to repair the dent to your ego this just made", Willow gave back with another giggle, "she told me that her boyfriend thinks you're scary."

"Yeah, that's something", the taller woman smirked in reply, making the redhead smile as well – while she wisely decided to keep the fact that she had reassured Joanne about Pat's lack of scariness to herself, not wanting to end up with a sulking girlfriend, even if it wouldn't last long.

"Hey", another thought then came to her, also providing a good way to change the topic, "did you have time to go shopping for groceries before I called? Because if not, we have to do so now, or get some take-out, I'm hungry."

"I had time", Pat let her know in reply, sounding so absurdly proud that it made the redhead smile, "our fridge's nicely filled again. But if you don't feel like cooking, we can get take-out anyway, it's been a while since we've had something from that one awesome Chinese place."

"Now that you've mentioned that, my willingness to cook evaporated", Willow informed her, making her chuckle slightly before she shrugged, then let her know that she had a craving for Chinese food anyway and that thus, getting some would be a very good idea.

"Also", she added after a moment, "you can hit the books again then faster, Giles will be so proud."

"Very good point", Willow agreed with a smirk, "take-out it is then, because now I got a craving as—" Before she could finish her sentence, a panicked scream came from one of the side-alleys up ahead, an unarticulated noise of fear, followed by a string of equally scared words as the man who was yelling them shouted at whoever was bothering to stay the Hell away from him.

"Oh, and here we go with the pre-dinner fight, just what I need to work up an appetite", Pat commented, already speeding up her steps; to Willow's amusement, she took another drag of the cigarette, then threw it away and clenched her fists as she started a fast trot, reaching the side alley just moments later, the redhead close behind her.

"Help!" the man yelled the moment he spotted them, trying to fend off a strangely shuffling, smaller man with a piece of wood, clearly not having a problem with asking two women for help, "that freak wants to bite me, help me, please!"

For a second, Pat thought that the other man was a regular vampire, something which would have made sense since the sun had vanished behind the horizon already; then, she noticed the tattered clothes and the bite wounds all over the man's arms and legs, a snarl coming from her as she realized that it was yet another zombie. Not letting this stop her though, or even slow down, she broke into a run, using the momentum of the speed she gained with that to slam into the shuffling man and send him to the ground; clearly, he had as much trouble coordinating his movements as the dean had had, groaning and grunting as he tried to get back on his feet.

"Gimme that", the demon growled at the still scared looking man, snatching the plank of wood from him before he could even try to do what she had said; grabbing his sleeve, Willow pulled him out of the danger zone while her partner raised the plank over her head, then brought it down with all her might, the wood splintering when it hit the zombie's head.

To her dismay, this obviously wasn't enough though to finish the thing off, since it groaned again and kept struggling to get up; growling lowly in the back of her throat, something which brought a startled look from the man she had rescued, Pat kicked the zombie right in the face, hard enough to lift him off the ground, the groan he let out afterwards sounding mildly pained. Still growling, Pat landed another kick, into the ribcage of the creature this time, hard enough to flip it over and make it land on its back; and Willow realized just in time what her partner planned to do next when she saw her lift the splintered piece of wood again, turning away and grabbing the man they had rescued to make him to the same, both thus only hearing it when Pat rammed the wood down and drove the splintered end right into the zombie's face, through the eyes and into its brain.

Almost immediately, the creature started convulsing, letting out awful gurgling sounds; and then, just like the dean, it exploded into dust, leaving nothing but the now bloodied and brained piece of wood behind, the plank wobbling for a second before it fell over and landed on the street with an audible bang, making both Willow and the man they had rescued jump.

"You can turn back around", Pat's voice followed the bang, "he's dusted."

"Thank you so much", the man sighed out after doing just that and eying the little pile of dust for a moment, "if you hadn't come… What the Hell was that thing?"

"Don't worry about it anymore, it's gone", Willow replied, not really answering his question, but to her relief, he didn't seem all too keen on getting an answer anyway, "just get out of here and go home, alright? Sunnydale's a dangerous place at night."

"Don't I know that", the man mumbled, looking at the pile of dust once more before he decided to heed the redhead's advice and, after thanking them once more for saving him, took off; they both watched him go for a moment, then Willow turned to look at her partner and asked her if she was okay, making her nod immediately.

"Those things aren't really a challenge fighting-wise", she then let the smaller woman know, lighting up another cigarette, "did you see, it couldn't even get back up."

"That's a good thing, though", Willow pointed out to her, "just imagine running zombies. Or jumping zombies. Do you think they can be killed any other way than by destroying the brain, like you did?"

"No idea", the demon shrugged in reply, "maybe we should find out the next time we run into one, because I don't think this was the last one."

"Me neither", Willow sighed, "and did you hear what that guy was saying? It was trying to bite him. Let's hope it really just was hungry and didn't want to spread whatever it was that made it that way further."

"Indeed", the taller woman agreed, "and now, I'm really hungry, even though that fight wasn't much of a challenge. Let's go and get some food?"

"Yes", the witch agreed at once, "and then we'll hopefully have a nice evening on the couch. Did Buffy say anything about patrol?"

"Nope", Pat gave back, "but I suppose she figured out that, after the excitement of the last few days, I want a bit of quietness with my girlfriend, so she didn't ask me to come along."

"Let's see how long that lasts", Willow teased in reply, taking tender hold of her partner's hand again as they started walking towards their home once more, "I bet you'll soon get grumpy again if you don't get to beat something up."

"We'll see", the demon replied, with an odd undertone in her voice that momentarily made Willow frown; for a second she considered asking her right there and then if she was alright, if something was bothering her, then decided that it could wait until they were back home and just smiled, stopping her walk to demand a brief kiss before they moved on, this time making it to the Chinese restaurant without any more unpleasant incidents.


	6. Chapter 6

One and a half hours later, Pat had spread out on the couch and was listening to music via headphones while Willow had made herself comfortable in one of their armchairs and was going through yet another book, looking for information on the three demons Giles had named for them as likely culprits. Every now and then, she glanced at her partner, something the taller woman didn't notice though as she was listening to her music with her good eye closed; usually, she moved her fingers or feet in the rhythm of the songs, but this time, she laid almost perfectly still, the only movement being the slow rising and falling of her chest.

Now that she had a full stomach and some quiet time to think about it, Willow once again asked herself if something was bothering her partner; she wondered how to word that question in a way that wouldn't make the taller woman clam up immediately, well aware of the fact how difficult it always was for the demon to voice her feelings, even after they had been together for so long.

While she tried to find an answer for that question, she went back to looking through the book she had gotten from her shelf of books on magic and magical creatures; to her dismay, she found nothing of interest in the volume though, and by the time she had gotten done with it, all the reading and excitement of the day was taking its toll on her, a hearty yawn escaping her as she snapped the book shut and rubbed her eyes.

"Sweetie?" she said after having managed to stop yawning, leaning over touch her partner's shoulder and nearly jumping back when she flinched visibly at the unexpected touch, then gave her a startled look as she removed her headphones, prompting the witch to apologize, "oh, sorry, I didn't mean to startle you… I'm done for the day with research, so I'll head off to bed, you wanna join me?"

"Sure", Pat gave back after a moment, switching off the MP3 player and carelessly tossing it on the living room table, "I'm quite tired by now, too, so getting some sleep is probably a good idea."

"Yes, because tomorrow, we'll have to go on with the research", the redhead smiled, coming to her feet; Pat did the same, and together, they made their way into the bedroom where they changed into their pyjamas and got into bed, the witch snuggling up to her partner the moment they both had lied down and the lights had been switched off.

"Sweetie?" Willow carefully spoke up after making herself comfortable in the taller woman's arms, "can I ask you something?"

"Yes, of course", the demon replied at once, sounding mildly surprised, "what is it? You normally don't ask me that way whenever you wanna know something, you just ask the question."

"Because you won't like the question", the witch gave back, turning in the black haired woman' embrace so she could look at her, bringing one hand up to run it down her partner's arm tenderly as she spoke on.

"It seems to me that something's bothering you", she voiced her thoughts, choosing her words wisely since she didn't want her girlfriend to clam up at once, "and please, Honey, don't try to tell me that's not true, because I can see it is."

"That's the third time in a row you use a pet name instead of my actual name", Pat gave back with a wry smirk, Willow's eyes by now having adjusted enough to the dark to let her see that, "and obviously, you really do know me well."

"Well, we've been together for quite some time" the witch replied, smiling at her, then growing serious again as her hand moved up to caress the taller woman's hair, her voice now low and serious, but loving when she asked her if she wanted to talk about it.

"I'm not sure", Pat sighed out in reply after remaining silent for a while, already so long that Willow had been about to tell her that she didn't have to if it was too hard when she finally had said something, "it's probably dumb, but…"

"If it bothers you, it surely isn't dumb", Willow reassured her at once, glad that her partner hadn't shrugged her concerns off immediately, "and maybe I can help you? Or it'll just help you to talk about it… That's what you have a girlfriend for, right?"

"Among other things", the demon replied with another wry smile; then, she sighed again, her gaze moving up to the ceiling while one of her hands moved to caress Willow's hair, her voice low when she finally spoke on.

"Well, I'm not even sure how to word that, but… you know, after you broke that spell Malphas had put on me, I was so terrified of… of what I'd become", she mumbled, the witch remaining silent as she sensed that there was more to come, worried by how much this bothered her partner – so far, she never had let anything keep her mind busy for that long, no matter what it had been, even when she had lost her demon for a while, she had gotten over it within hours after it had been returned to her.

"Even when I had no emotions, it was better than what I was after I was forced to demon out by the spell", she finally went on, now looking at the redhead again, "because then, there was just that anger. You know I get angry easily, I have a temper so short I'm not even sure it deserves to be called a temper, even though I got better about that thanks to you, but… no matter how angry I'd ever gotten since we met, I never would have thought of hurting you. Until that spell hit."

"But you didn't hurt me", Willow pointed out in reply, skilfully ignoring that the demon would have done just that right after the forced transformation if she hadn't used the binding spell; Pat let out yet another sigh, her gaze moving back up to the ceiling as she replied, saying out loud what the witch just had been thinking.

"But I would have, if you hadn't used that binding spell right after I changed. And… there was this part of me, the part that loves you and doesn't want to harm you, ever, but that part had no control, all I could listen to was the anger and the need to harm you, and the others… I've never felt that before. Yeah, I tend to get grumpy if I don't get to beat something up for a while, but… It's never been like this before, and it was terrifying."

"I can't imagine how awful it must have been", Willow let her know after thinking about this a few moments, "but, Sweetie… You got enough control back after a while so you didn't want to hurt me anymore, and only growled at the others when they got too close to me. And I know you never would do anything to me under normal circumstances, no matter what, so please… try to stop worrying about this, alright?"

"I've been trying ever since I finally could change back", the taller woman gave back, "but it's not easy. As I told you back then, I've never been frightened by what I am, or by the things I can do… until I nearly ate you."

"I understand", the witch reassured her in reply, not wanting her to think that she wasn't taking her concerns seriously, "but I'm not afraid of you, I never have been afraid of you, so you shouldn't be, either. Is this why you haven't demoned out since you could change back?"

"Yes", Pat admitted in reply, "I'm kinda… I don't know, scared I might lose control again if I do. As I said, I know it's dumb, it has never happened before that spell hit and I know it was the fault of said spell, but… I can't really help it."

"Understandable", Willow reassured her, running her hand through her long hair, "but I'm sure that, once you do demon out, it'll be alright… and you know you can talk to me whenever something like that bothers you, right?"

"Yes, I know", the demon gave back, finally smiling slightly again, and not one of the wry smiles she had been giving the witch earlier, "but, well, you know me, I have a tough time doing that…"

"Yes, you're too stubborn for your own good at times", Willow teased as an answer, giggling when her partner let out a huff; then, she moved even closer to kiss her tenderly, smiling at her afterwards as her hand moved once more to caress her cheek tenderly.

"I love you", she let her know, "stubbornness and all, so never think you can't talk to me, alright?"

"I'd never think that", Pat reassured her at once, "it's my own stubbornness which makes me keep my mouth shut, not any concerns that you won't listen. And I love you, too."

Smiling again, Willow leaned in for another kiss in reply, then let out another hearty yawn; smirking slightly, the taller woman suggested that they should get some sleep now that the talk had been talked, making her partner nod as she yawned once more, only now noticing how tired she really was.

"Sleep well", she thus said, snuggling closer to the black haired woman again; Pat wished her the same, then started caressing her hair again until her slow and calm breaths showed she had fallen asleep, following her into dreamland just a few minutes later.


	7. Chapter 7

In the next morning, Willow was as usual the first one to wake up; since, thanks to the unexpected death of the dean, resolving the situation at college had been postponed until a new one had been found, and thus, she didn't need to get up immediately, but stayed where she was, watching her partner sleep for a while and smiling to herself at the sight, marvelling at how peaceful the taller woman looked when she was fast asleep.

As always when she was slumbering deeply, Pat was snoring quite loudly, something Willow had been struggling to get used to when she had started spending the night at the taller woman's place; by the time she had moved in there though, she wasn't troubled by this anymore, by now not even letting the snoring wake her up.

"My little grumbler", she mumbled to herself, making sure to keep her voice low since she didn't want to wake the demon up; she held back the urge to giggle for the same reason, then finally, but carefully got out of her girlfriend's embrace and made her way into the bathroom, closing the door behind her to keep the noise she'd make during her morning routine down to a minimum.

While she brushed her teeth and went through the rest of said routine, she thought about the current situation with the zombies and about which demon might be responsible for it; since she hadn't found anything the previous evening, she pondered if she should hit the rest of her books after breakfast or if she'd check the internet, then decided on the second option – after all, Giles had much more books at his disposal than she did, and she figured that her chances to find something online were higher than in the few books about the topic she had at home.

A familiar grunting noise coming from the bedroom distracted her from her thoughts, and she smirked to herself as she listened to her partner waking up and struggling out of bed; moments later, the door to the bathroom opened, Pat giving her a mildly surprised look when she spotted her at the washbasin, the toothbrush still in her mouth, obviously having expected her to be done in the bathroom by now.

"Morning", she grumbled after a moment, running one hand through her tousled hair; quickly, the redhead spat a mouthful of foam into the basin, then replied with "Good morning" and a cheerful smile, not surprised when a low grunt was the only response.

"Such a morning grouch", she teased with a giggle after washing out her mouth and cleaning the toothbrush, "but I think I know how to wake you up today…"

"Coffee", the demon grunted in reply, finding her own toothbrush – only to nearly drop it when Willow moved to stand behind her and slipped both arms around her waist, standing on the tip of her toes so she could whisper into her ear. "Not exactly. I was thinking more along the lines of a shower… together."

Through the bathroom mirror, she could see her partner's good eye narrow – before the toothbrush clattered into the sink as the taller woman let go of it and turned in the witch's embrace, looking down on her with a well-known lusty glint in her gaze.

"I knew this would work", the redhead giggled, pleased by the effect those few words had had on the demon; in response, Pat let out a low growl, to her amusement, her fingers already moving to unbutton her pyjama top, so hurriedly that she almost ripped one of them off.

"I like when you're fierce like that", Willow mumbled as a shiver ran down her back, her fingers finding the hem of her partner's pyjama pants and pulling them down; moments later, her top was slid down her shoulders and joined the pants on the tiled floor, the taller woman bending for a surprisingly passionate kiss, her morning grumpiness obviously flown out the window for the day, proving once more how well exactly the witch's idea had worked out.

* * *

"Oh, Buffy called", Willow stated almost an hour later – after the couple had spent a long time in the shower doing things which had nothing to do with hygiene, until the hot water had ran out and they had been forced to flee, giggling and chuckling –, "I didn't even hear the phone ring."

"Must have been water in your ear", Pat smirked from where she was standing at the coffee machine, busy with getting it ready to make coffee for them, "just in case she asks why you didn't take the call."

"She called your cell phone, too", the redhead giggled in reply after checking her partner's phone, "so she'll know there wasn't just water in _my_ ear when I tell her that. I better call her back, maybe it's urgent."

"Yup", the demon nodded while she found her cigarettes and lit one of them up, then glared at the coffee machine again, as if doing that would make the coffee get done faster; Willow still took a moment to smirk at that, then dialled the Slayer's number and held the phone to her ear, not surprised when the call was taken right after the second ring.

"The oddest thing just happened", Buffy said instead of a greeting, "is Pat awake enough already to come over with you? Now?"

"Um, I guess so", Willow gave back, looking at her girlfriend, "if you have coffee ready when we get there I suppose, she's just making some and she'll grumble if she won't have time to drink it."

"Yes I will", Pat grumbled at hearing that, making the redhead smirk at her; then, Buffy spoke up again, distracting her from her partner as she focused on her best friend's words again. "I know she will, and I promise the strongest coffee I can make if you just come as fast as possible. It's really urgent."

"Alright then", Willow let her know, "we're on our way… Pat, don't look at me like that, Buffy says it's urgent."

"I can imagine the way she looks at you right now", Buffy giggled, making the redhead laugh as well; then, she reassured her best friend once more that they'd hurry before she ended the call, watching with another giggle how Pat switched off the coffee machine with a heavy sigh and dumped the contents into the trash bin, giving her a miserable look afterwards.

"This better be really important", she then grumbled as they made their way into the bedroom together to change from t-shirt and sweatpants into clothing which was more suitable for going out, "and Buffy better make some good coffee."

"I'm sure she will", Willow reassured her as she changed into a pair of jeans and a dark green shirt which brought out her eyes while her partner chose similar legwear and a button-down black shirt for the upper half, "by now she knows how to make coffee the way you like it."

"Good she does", Pat muttered, "and I wonder what is so important that we need to come to her place right away."

"Maybe Giles found something and we have to act fast", Willow shrugged, "or something else, dramatic happened. She said that the oddest thing happened, so maybe, a zombie showed up on her doorstep and asked her for help."

"Oh, great", the demon smirked in reply, "now I have this mental image of a zombie sitting on her couch and greeting us with a welcoming groan when we enter."

"What a thought", Willow giggled, "I hope that's not what really happened, I'm not sure I could deal with this without having a giggle fit. Or being grossed out. Or both."

"I think I'd just laugh", Pat smirked, finishing buttoning up her shirt, "do you think we should take weapons?"

"Nah", Willow decided after a moment, "it's daylight, so no vampires, and hopefully, no zombies either on the way to Buffy's house. At least no flashy big weapon, if it makes you feel better, bring a dagger or something?"

"Yeah, I'll do that", the demon agreed, "better to be safe than sorry, huh?" And with those words, she made her way to the weapon chest she kept next to her side of the bed and opened it; quickly, she selected a sharp dagger with a double-edged blade, along with a sheath she could strap to her leg, so that the weapon would be hidden in the shaft of her boot.

"Sneaky, huh", Willow smirked as she watched the taller woman strap the dagger to her leg beneath her pants; nodding, Pat straightened up again and returned the smirk, then asked if she was ready to leave, making it the witch's turn to nod her agreement. Together, they made their way to the small anteroom, where they put on their shoes and jacket, the demon choosing her black leather boots so the dagger would be properly hidden while Willow decided to wear high-heeled half-boots, said high heel reducing the difference in size between Pat and herself at least a little bit.

"Off we go then", the demon told her as soon as they both were ready to go, "and I really hope Buffy made some good coffee."

"I'm sure she did", Willow gave back, grasping her hand as they made their way to the elevator together, smiling about the caffeine addiction of her partner – it only was rivalled by her need for nicotine, and one of the quirks she loved about her.

Since Buffy had told them that it was urgent, Pat called a taxi the moment they had stepped out of the apartment building; to their happiness, the vehicle stopped at the sidewalk just a few minutes later, and they both climbed in, giving the driver the address and ignoring the way he threw the taller woman nervous glances through the rear view mirror, looking at her if he expected her to draw a gun on him any moment and demand his money.

"Jeez", Pat muttered as soon as the taxi had stopped in front of Buffy's home and she had paid the driver, instead of robbing him, "did you see the looks he was giving me? I was this close to tell him I'm loaded and don't need the measly amount of cash in his wallet."

"Poor you", Willow showed some sympathy, taking tender hold of the taller woman's hand again, "but good thing you didn't tell him that, he might have tried to talk you into giving him a tip after all."

"I don't give tips to people who eyeball me", the demon shrugged, making her partner giggle slightly; then, she pulled her down for a quick, but gentle kiss before they made their way to Buffy's front door, curious to find out why the Slayer had wanted them to come to her home as fast as possible.


	8. Chapter 8

Not even half a minute after the couple had rang the door bell, the door already was opened and Buffy beamed at them, clearly happy to see them; she asked them to come inside and to got sit down in the living room, both women momentarily halting in their steps when they saw the thin, strict looking woman sitting on the couch, her eyes reminding Willow of a dead fish when she looked at them and nodded in acknowledgement.

"Good morning", the woman said before Pat or Willow had a chance to say something and coming to her feet, holding a bony hand out to the couple, "I'm Dr Henderson. You must be the friends Ms Summers mentioned when I came here."

"I guess we are", Pat gave back after studying the woman for another moment, her thin built which reminded her of a scare crow and the hard-lined face which seemed to be made of edges and angles, with nothing soft anywhere, "I'm Pat Patterson, and this is my partner, Willow Rosenberg."

"Pat Patterson", the doctor repeated, "if I've ever heard a fake name, this is it. But it's none of my business, I suppose."

In response, Pat just raised an eyebrow, then sat down on the nearest armchair without comment; since the elder woman didn't look all too inviting, Willow decided to perch on said armchair's armrest, smiling slightly when immediately, Pat put one arm around her waist, her hand coming to a tender rest on her side.

"Dr Henderson works at the local hospital", Buffy explained as she joined the small group in the living room, carrying a tray with a can of coffee, cups, milk and sugar, "the one you were at last week, Willow, remember?"

"Yes, of course", the redhead gave back, also remembering how her stay there had ended – she had healed herself by borrowing the blonde's strength and with her magic, and the doctor responsible for her had walked in just when said magic had finished doing its job, reacting with surprising nonchalance at the sight of a patient who'd been badly hurt just an hour earlier now fully fine.

"I remembered this incident and tried to call you", Henderson now let the redhead know, "but I couldn't reach you, so I called your best friend. There was an incident at my workplace in the hospital."

"Yeah? What kind of incident?" Pat wanted to know when the doctor didn't speak on, giving her a curious look; clearing her throat, Henderson took the time to prepare a cup of coffee for herself before she answered, her words making both the witch and the demon raise an eyebrow.

"I work at the morgue", Henderson explained, prompting Pat to mumble "no surprise there" under her breath, just for Willow to hear; holding back the urge to laugh, the redhead gave her best not to react in any way, but kept her gaze focused on the doctor, who spoke on after a moment during which she had given the demon a hard look.

"I'm the leading pathologist of Sunnydale", she let the three women know, "and you surely won't be surprised to hear that I've examined a variety of unusual deaths during my time here. This morning though, it happened the first time that one of my corpses sat up on my table. I have to say, I was mildly surprised."

"Mildly surprised", Willow echoed, raising an eyebrow, "really? Not more than that?"

"No", Henderson gave back, so serious that the redhead didn't doubt her for a second, shrugging when Pat asked her what she had done a moment later.

"I told the corpse that he's dead", she then let the couple know, forcing the witch to bite back laughter once more, "and when he didn't listen, I grossly misused my scalpel by stabbing him in the eye. Then he realized he's dead and lied back down again."

"Let me guess", Pat sighed in reply, "he had bite marks all over?"

"Yes", Henderson replied at once, "this is what he died of, high blood loss due to multiple traumas in all areas of his body."

"Doctor speak for he was bitten to death, then", Willow mumbled, exchanging a worried glance with her partner, then with Buffy, "this is bad. Are there more people who died like this in your morgue, doctor?"

"Not yet", the elder woman replied, "but seeing how many people with neck trauma end up in my morgue, I wouldn't be surprised if we'd get more of these as well, now."

She took another sip of her coffee, then her cold, fish-like gaze focused on Willow, nearly making the redhead fidget on her seat as the stare made her quite uncomfortable, even though she gave her best to not let this show, her brow furrowing when the doctor spoke on. "From what your attending physician told me, you're no stranger to such events. I want you to make sure this doesn't happen again."

"We're working on it", the witch replied after a moment, forcing herself to hold the doctor's gaze, "in fact, we're close to finding out wha… who is responsible, and once we know this, we can do something against it."

"There is no need to correct yourself", Henderson told her as an answer, "I'm well aware of the fact that this is not a normal town and that… let's call them supernatural beings are living here in abundance. You seem to be one of them, from what your doctor told me."

"…I'm a witch", Willow confirmed after a moment, figuring that she might as well tell the truth, since the doctor already seemed to have a vague idea about her anyway, "but other than that, I'm perfectly human."

"Interesting", Henderson replied, not sounding as if she meant it though, "I hope then that your… skills will be helpful with this unpleasant situation. I have to say, I do not like such disorderly behaviour in my morgue."

"If you get any more cases like that one", Buffy now spoke up for the first time since she had brought the coffee, "make sure to stay away from the teeth of the corpses, we don't know yet if the disease or whatever it is spreads through bites."

"Highly possible", the doctor replied, to the dismay of the three women, "and maybe, I can answer this question for you soon, a team of highly discreet doctors is analysing the corpse as we speak."

"Let's hope they're also discreet about handing this to the government", Buffy muttered, "because we've made quite the bad experiences with government-types."

"So far, no information has been forwarded to the government about this", Henderson replied, "but if there are more cases than this one, they will become aware of it sooner or later, even if we don't alert them via the hospital."

"And that's why we need to solve that quickly", Pat threw in, making Henderson nod, her fish eyes focusing on the demon as she spoke up again. "Yes, because the last thing I need is a bunch of government imbeciles crawling around in my morgue. So you will help the hospital?"

"We'll find out who is responsible for this, and stop them", Buffy was the one to answer this, giving the doctor a smile, "don't worry, Dr Henderson, we're experienced with such problems."

"Which is why I came to you", Henderson replied, not smiling back at her, "and I shall call you as soon as we learned anything about this new… condition at the hospital. Please give me your cell phone numbers, we only have your landline number at the hospital, Miss Rosenberg, and I couldn't reach you there earlier today."

"Oh, of course, wait", Willow gave back, starting to search through her pockets for a paper and something to write on it with – when Henderson already reached into her handbag and brought out a notepad and a pen, holding it out to her.

"Thanks", she smiled, not really surprised when the doctor didn't smile back, but just nodded; quickly, the redhead wrote down her cell phone number and Pat's, then handed the notepad back to the doctor, watching how she tore off the page she had written on and tucked it into her pocket before she wrote down her own number and gave it to the witch, telling her to call whenever they needed something or wanted to know about medical things.

"Thank you", Buffy smiled at her, the elder woman once more not smiling back, "we'll keep in touch, then."

"Yes", Henderson nodded, coming to her feet and holding out her hand, "thank you for seeing me, and thank you for agreeing to help. And once again, don't hesitate to call me in case you need any help with medical problems."

"Alright", Buffy confirmed, then got up to let the doctor out, and the moment she was out of earshot, Willow looked at her girlfriend, now letting out the giggles she had been holding back minutes ago.

"What a weird woman", she managed to say at last, her mirth making Pat smile as well, "I wonder if she ever laughs or even smiles."

"I doubt it", the demon smirked, "in fact, I don't believe she ever has any really strong emotions." And then, to Willow's even bigger amusement, she imitated the doctor, doing a surprisingly good imitation of her voice and her dry tone when she said "I was mildly surprised when the corpse sat up on my autopsy table."

"Mildly surprised, yeah", the redhead giggled, moving on the armchair now that they were alone again and ending up sitting in her partner's lap, "and the funny thing is, I believed her, she doesn't seem like someone who would freak out even if corpses sit up again."

"Indeed", Pat agreed, smirking at how she had made her partner laugh and feeling glad about it, "but at least we have a good contact now in case one of us gets hurt, and maybe they'll find something useful about that zombie thing."

"I hope so", Willow nodded, looking at Buffy as the Slayer came back into the room, "and talking about the zombie thing, did Giles call?"

"Not yet", Buffy gave back, sitting down on the spot where Henderson had been sitting minutes ago, "but I took the book and a few others home with me, so if you have no plans…"

"There we go", Pat sighed out in reply, "research time. I should have brought my eye drops."

"You don't even have eye drops", Willow gave back as she got up from her lap again, "because you hate them."

"Yes, I do", the demon nodded, a movement she repeated when Buffy asked if she wanted more coffee; and after all the cups had been refilled, the blonde handed out books much like Giles would have, silence soon filling the room as they all focused on their research yet again.


	9. Chapter 9

For the next three hours, they were busy with their research – and then Buffy finally found what they had been looking for, namely knowledge which ruled out two of the possible culprits and confirmed one of them as the one to blame.

"Listen to this", she spoke up, making both Willow and Pat glance up from their books, the witch briefly worried about her partner when she saw how reddened and watery her good eye had become by now, "the demon Andras is said to have the abilities to raise the dead and make them do his bidding, and send them to attack anyone in their sight, to make the victim part of his army. That makes sense with the undead attacking random people on the street and us in the office, Pat, doesn't it?"

"Yes", the demon agreed, "what does it say about the other two demons we found? What do they use the dead for after they made them come back?"

"Well, for one of them, it says he uses them to build his palace, which is not what those we've seen seemed to be doing", Buffy replied, "and the other one, it doesn't say. But I think for now, Andras is our best bet."

"Does it have any more information on him?" Willow wanted to know, gesturing at the book, "like, under which circumstances he pops up?"

"It's really vague", the blonde gave back after checking the book once more, "it says that he can't be summoned, but that he'll choose to whom he'll come, and offer the chosen one help in a time of great despair."

"Oh, so we just need to find someone in despair who made a deal with Andras, should be easy in such a peaceful town like Sunnydale", Pat said with a roll of her good eye, making Willow giggle again while Buffy rolled her eyes as well, then shrugged and snapped the book shut, declaring that she had enough of research now.

"I'll tell Giles to look into this Andras guy further, and the other one", she let her friends know afterwards, "I guess we can ditch the one who uses the undead to build his house."

"Yup", Pat agreed, "because none of the undead we saw was carrying building utensils. Unless they dropped them before they tried to attack."

"What a mental image", Willow smirked, making Buffy grin and nod as well – before she looked at the demon again, managing to sound both sheepish and pleading when she spoke up once more. "I know you probably want a bit of peace with Willow, but… would you mind coming along to patrol tonight? If there are more of those zombie things around now, maybe going alone isn't smart."

"Yeah, that makes sense", Pat nodded after a moment, "so, sure."

"I'll come along too", Willow added before the blonde could voice her gratitude, "some magic might be useful, in case there are more of them than you are prepared to face. They might be slow and dumb, but if there are too many…"

"Yeah, better to be safe than sorry", the demon repeated a statement she had made earlier that day, "even though my protectiveness wants to kick in and tell you that you'll do no such thing, I'll try to keep it down."

"Aw", the witch cooed in reply, making Buffy smile, "I appreciate that, Sweetie, really." The couple beamed at each other, then shared a tender kiss; and while they did that, Buffy called Giles and told him about her findings, also informing him about the visit of Dr Henderson and about the things the elder woman had told them. The Watcher promised her that he'd look into information about Andras and the second demon which still was a possibility, then told her to be careful during the nightly patrol; and after the call had been ended, the trio made themselves comfortable, eager to get some rest and quiet before it'd be time to leave for patrol.

* * *

To the slight surprise and dismay of the trio, the number of zombies apparently had exploded during the day; they already encountered two shortly after leaving the house, killing them by decapitation, and as they made their way through the nightly streets, they ran into three more, Buffy and Pat getting rid of them with ease, since they moved as slowly and uncoordinated as the ones they had ran into before.

"Okay", the blonde grumbled after she had hacked off the head of the third zombie and it had exploded into dust, "where did they all come from?"

"It's spreading, obviously", Pat gave back, shaking the sword she had borrowed from Buffy to rid it of zombie dust, "either Andras was a really busy beaver while we were researching, or it spreads through getting bitten."

"Let's hope it's the first option", Buffy sighed, looking around as she made sure that no more zombies were in the near vicinity, "because then, he raises people which already did die, and innocent citizens don't end up beheaded by us just because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Good point", the demon had to agree while Willow nodded, "so should we check a cemetery? If he raises the dead, that'd make sense, right?"

"Yeah", Buffy nodded, "let's go, there's one not far from here, we should start there."

The other two women agreed to that, and let the blonde lead the way, the black haired woman lighting up a cigarette as they walked in silence, all of them glancing around to make sure they wouldn't miss any zombies and give them a chance to attack them from behind, not wanting to take any unnecessary risks, despite the slowness and obvious lack of intelligence of the zombies.

To their relief, they at least didn't encounter any more of the creatures until they reached the cemetery; once there though, they stopped dead in their tracks as they watched how the earth over an awful lot of graves was moving and shifting, showing them that a small army of zombies was trying to rise.

"So Andras is a busy beaver", Willow mumbled with numb lips, fighting against the first instinct she'd had when she had seen at how many graves the earth was moving, said instinct telling her to run away as fast as she could, "that must be dozens…"

"If we're fast, we can get rid of most of them before they manage to dig themselves out", Pat gave back, clearly trying to calm her down, "if they take as long to get out of the graves as it takes them to get up when they fall down, it shouldn't be too hard."

As if she had jinxed it with her words, the ground beneath their feet started to tremble, prompting them all to flinch – and then, with a horrendously loud wet sound, the graves let go of their former inhabitants, spewing the zombies out of the cold earth and onto the grass, their groans filling the night as they struggled to their feet.

"You jinxed it", Buffy accused Pat as she already raised her sword, "once we got rid of them, you'll have to make that up to us."

"I'll buy you dinner", the demon replied, bringing her weapon up as well; she exchanged a quick look with Willow, the witch silently telling her to be careful, then Buffy and she charged, the taller woman even letting out some sort of hoarse battle-cry as she swung her sword and decapitated the nearest zombie.

Not wanting to get into the midst of this battle, not without a proper weapon, Willow stayed where she was; thanks to the mass of zombies, she could fire spells at them without endangering her partner or her best friend, frying three of the creatures at once with her lightning spell and smirking to herself in confidence as she watched them crumble and twitch a bit before they laid still. Even though the situation was quite serious, with at least two dozen zombies still on their rotting feet, the redhead couldn't help herself, but just had to feel proud of her partner as she watched how she sliced through the undead the way a warm knife would slice through butter; unlike during the battle she'd had a few days ago with the servants of Malphas, she wasn't just fighting with sheer brutality and violence this time, but with the combination of speed and strength Willow had seen from her so often.

After just watching for a few moments, the redhead finally focused on her part of the fight again, frying yet another zombie; then, a few of them moved and blocked her line of sight on her partner, forcing her to send her magic towards those farther away from the black haired woman, not wanting to accidentally hit her with one of the spells.

A few feet away, Buffy was making short work of the walking dead as well, her sword slicing through necks left and right; the zombies fell one after the other, their slow movements and even slower brains making it impossible for them to fight back properly, their jaws opening and closing uselessly as they tried to grab the Slayer and bite her, none of them coming close enough to do so.

From the corner of her eye, she saw that Pat momentarily wasn't so lucky, one of the zombies managing to grab her from the left, her blind side; with a snarl, she drove her sword through his gut and sent him stumbling back, then kicked the feet of another one close to her and sent him down to his knees, using the time she gained with that by jerking the sword out of the zombie's gut again and beheading him with one swift move.

Once she could be sure that the demon was doing okay, Buffy focused on her own group of zombies again; before she could hack at them though, bright blue lightning crackled and they fell in perfect unison, the blonde looking surprised for a moment – before her gaze met Willow's and the witch smirked proudly, giving her a thumbs up and making her grin as well.

Turning away from the group Willow had felled with her spell, the blonde went to help Pat with getting rid of the few which were still standing, beheading the one she had brought to his knees moments earlier; and just a minute later, that was done, Buffy arming sweat off her brow after the last zombie had fallen and letting out a heavy breath, then looked at the demon with a proud grin, lowering her sword as she spoke up.

"Well, I bet we pissed Andras off now", she stated, "all that work and we took not even five minutes to kill… them… all…" She trailed off as she realized that blood was dripping to the ground, her eyes widening; she stared at the source of the blood for a few moments, then up at Pat's face, the demon looking back at her sheepishly, her voice meek when she finally said something. "That's what I get for saying they're slow and dumb… One of them got me."

And with those words, she pulled back her hand, just in time to let Willow see the damage as well as the redhead was catching up to the two; the bite had taken a chunk of flesh out of her arm right beneath the elbow, the wound bleeding quite heavily, the sight prompting the witch to let out a gasp before she looked at her partner in shock, remembering what the book had said about the dead Andras raised from their graves, fear cramping up her heart as she thought of the words detailing how the bite of the undead would turn the victim into part of the demon's army.


	10. Chapter 10

"Maybe you'll be immune because you are a demon, as well", Buffy hazarded ten minutes later, "the bite did heal just fine, right?"

"Yes", Pat gave back, glad that the wound had done just when she had demoned out and that she hadn't lost control during the process, as she still had feared she might; her forearm still hurt where the zombie had taken a chunk of flesh out of it, but since that was normal even after healing in her demonic form, she didn't let it worry her too much.

"Let's hope that's right", Willow said with concern, looking at her partner for any signs of sickness, "and I wish we knew more about this… Like how long it takes after a bite until the victim is turned…"

"Should we call Dr Henderson?" Buffy wanted to know, looking from the taller woman to the redhead and back at Pat again, "maybe they found something out by now."

"Not yet", the demon replied at once, before Willow could voice her opinion about that idea, "she'll probably get the idea to stuff me into quarantine or something, and she can do that when I'm actually displaying symptoms or something. Maybe we'll be lucky for once and I'm really immune. Or my healing factor kicked whatever it is that causes a transformation out of my system."

"I hope so", Willow replied, giving her partner another concerned look, "but if you're not, and you show any kind of symptom, we'll call that doctor, alright? Immediately, and you'll tell me immediately, the moment you feel odd or something!"

"I will, I promise", Pat reassured her, "but I'm sure it'll be fine." With those words, she stepped closer to her partner and placed a calming hand on her shoulder; sensing that the couple needed some privacy, Buffy moved a few steps away while Willow reached up and placed her hand on the taller woman's, her concern now clearly showing on her face as she swallowed heavily.

"I hope you're right", she then mumbled, unable to keep the tremble out of her voice, "because if you aren't…"

"Don't worry about it for now", Pat gave back, moving her hand so she could grasp the redhead's, "we can do that if it really has some effect on me, for now, let's just go home, I think we've fought enough for today."

"I'll check the other cemetery, close to this one", Buffy replied, giving the demon a concerned look, as well, "but you go home and rest, just to be on the safe side."

"I'll make her go to bed immediately", Willow let the blonde know, with another worried look at the taller woman, "getting some sleep is the best thing she can do now, I guess…"

Nodding, Buffy briefly touched her arm, in a reassuring gesture that made her smile weakly; the witch still told her to be careful, then the couple left the cemetery together and headed home, Willow giving her best to keep down her concern as she told herself that Pat was right and that they could worry about her being infected as soon as she'd display any symptoms, even though deep inside, she already feared what the outcome of this bite would be.

* * *

"How are you feeling?" Willow wanted to know an hour later, as the couple had changed and gotten ready for bed; shrugging, Pat gave her a hopefully calming smile, for a moment considering a lie, then deciding against it and telling her partner the truth. "Just thirsty, but that's nothing to worry about, Honey, I'll just have a drink of water before I lie down with you, and then we can get some sleep."

"Alright", Willow gave back, still doubtful; she stole a glance at her lover's arm, momentarily glad when she couldn't spot anything out of the ordinary, then watched Pat make her way into the bathroom, the sound of running water coming a few moments later.

Once more, the redhead told herself that she could start worrying about her partner the moment she'd show some symptoms; and maybe, they'd really be lucky for once and Pat's demonic side and healing abilities would make sure that nothing would happen to her – and she nearly had convinced herself of that when she heard the demon throw up in the bathroom, her heart suddenly hammering up to her throat as she basically jumped out of bed and rushed into the bathroom.

"I don't feel so good", Pat greeted her, at least having made it to the toilet before the water she'd gulped down had come back up; kneeling down next to her, Willow held back her hair as she heaved again, her face suddenly pale and sweaty, the speed with which that had happened causing the witch's concern to reach new heights.

"I'll call Dr Henderson", she decided while her girlfriend threw up once more, her body trembling beneath the smaller woman's hands, "and don't even try to talk back now, you hear?"

"Not planning to", the demon mumbled, briefly closing her eye as she felt her heart race in her chest; even though she was sweating all over now, she felt cold, another shiver running through her, her sudden and unexpected bad state causing Willow's heart to clench up.

"I'll be right back", she told her partner in the kindest voice she could manage, "I'll hurry, it'll just take me a minute."

"Alright", Pat brought out between dry heaves, her stomach now emptied of anything she could have thrown up; Willow still took the time to place a tender kiss on her temple, then got up and hurried back to the bedroom, where her cell phone laid on the nightstand. For a horrible moment, she had no idea where she had put the paper on which Dr Henderson had written down her number, and her heartbeat shot through the roof again; then, she remembered putting it into her pocket and, upon coming home, placing it on the living room table, and she quickly rushed there, finding the paper there and hurriedly dialling the doctor's number, hoping that she'd take the call despite the late time – after all, it was almost one a.m. by now.

"Henderson", the doctor's cool voice greeted her after a few rings, the simple word filling Willow with relief so big that she had to close her eyes for a moment; she took in a deep breath to keep her voice steady, then replied, giving her best to sound calm as she introduced herself and told the doctor why she was calling.

"My girlfriend was bitten", she let the elder woman know, "by one of those… zombie things, and now she's really sick, she's throwing up and sweating…"

"I'll send a car to pick the two of you up", Henderson replied at once, not letting it show if Willow's call had woken her up, "it will take you to the hospital and right into the morgue, we've put up the examination area for the victims there, and I will meet you there."

"Thank you", Willow gave back, feeling so grateful that it nearly overwhelmed her, mentally taking back every not so friendly word she'd said about the doctor, "we'll wait downstairs on the sidewalk, then…"

"The car will be there in ten minutes", Henderson let her know in reply, "make sure to bring something your girlfriend can throw up into, just in case it happens again during the drive."

"Of course", the redhead reassured her, "thank you again…"

"Don't thank me yet", Henderson told her in the same cool voice she'd used when she had taken the call, "we will have to put your partner in quarantine and I can't guarantee that we'll be able to help her."

"…I know", the witch admitted after a moment, briefly closing her eyes again as despair wanted to overwhelm her and she asked herself why it always had to be them ending up in such situations, why there always had to be something to ruin their happiness; then, she pushed those feelings aside and told Henderson that she'd get her partner ready for the transport then, the doctor agreeing before she told her to take care and ended the call.

Quickly, Willow made her way back into the bathroom, still clutching the phone and the piece of paper; by now, Pat had stopped throwing up, but had slumped against the wall, resting her head against the cold tiles, breathing heavily and trying to ignore the ache in her chest which welled up with each breath, only capable of letting out a low groan when she heard her partner say her name.

"Hey", Willow tried again, kneeling down next to her once more and moving a sweaty strand of hair out of the taller woman's face, shocked at how clammy the skin felt by now, "we need to go downstairs, Dr Henderson is sending a car and they'll take you to the hospital, they'll try to help you there…"

"Should have been more careful", the demon whispered in reply, her voice even hoarser than usual and so weak that it was almost inaudible, "sorry… underestimated them… stupid."

"Don't worry about that now", Willow gave back, tenderly caressing her hair, "it doesn't matter anymore, we'll take you to the hospital and you'll be alright, okay?"

Even though she didn't feel as if she'd be okay again anytime soon, Pat made herself nod; Willow gave her another encouraging smile, then asked her if she could get up, helping the taller woman to do just that moments later by putting one arm around her waist and almost pulling her to her feet.

"Come on", she mumbled, telling herself that she had to be the strong one now as Pat put her arm around her shoulders and heavily leaned on her; since she didn't want to stand at the sidewalk in just their pyjamas, Willow helped the black haired woman into her jacket before she put on her own one, then assisted her partner once more with putting on her shoes, choosing her boots, since she just had to step into them.

"Alright", she mumbled, "let's go then, come on… Lean on me, I don't want you to fall down."

Nodding, Pat did just that, leaning on her heavily as they made her way to the elevator; once the doors had opened and they had stepped inside the cabin, she leaned against the wall heavily, groaning again as fresh pain welled up in her chest after just taking a few steps, the sweat by now practically pouring from her brow and down her face.

"You'll be okay", Willow told her as the elevator made its descent, not sure if she wanted to convince herself or her partner more of this, "Dr Henderson and her team will figure something out, I'm sure… And if not, I'll hit the books, I'll summon this demon if I have to, like I did with Malphas, and make him heal you, you know I can do that."

Only now, Willow realized that she had forgotten to bring something the taller woman could throw up into during the car ride, then shrugged it off, telling herself that getting her to the hospital was more important now and that there was no time to take her back upstairs; thus, she ignored that little mishap and focused on her girlfriend again, reaching out and tenderly caressing her cheek, not letting the clammy skin and the small rivulets of sweat stop her.

"Come on", she mumbled tenderly as the elevator came to a stop and the doors slid open, wrapping her arm around the black haired woman's waist again, "let's get you outside, the car should be here soon, Dr Henderson said ten minutes…"

By now, breathing hurt her so much that Pat just nodded, not even trying to speak anymore; she leaned heavily on Willow again as they moved out of the elevator and to the exit, then ended up at the sidewalk – where Pat slumped down against the wall and simply sat down on the cold ground, not having enough strength to remain standing anymore. Seeing her partner in such an awful condition made the witch's heart clench up, and she tried to remember the last time she had seen her like this; this made her realize that ever since they had gotten together, Pat never had been sick, one of the benefits of her demonic side, but obviously, not even that had been able to protect her from whatever that zombie had given her when it had bitten her.

"Hey, look", she distracted herself from those thoughts when she saw a car round the corner and the lights blinked at them, "here they are… come on, you have to get up…"

With those words, she bent down to help Pat to her feet; it took some struggling, but finally, she was standing again, leaning heavily against the wall once more, Willow keeping one arm around her to make sure she wouldn't end up on the ground yet again. To her relief, it didn't take long until the car parked next to them, and the back door opened, a young man in a white lab coat getting out of the vehicle; he quickly moved to where the couple was standing, and taking one look at them was enough to show him which one of them the sick one was, the witch noticing that he was wearing rubber gloves when he took tender hold of the demon and led her to the car.

"Here", he then said, handing a bag to the witch, "in case she has to puke again. Do you have gloves?"

"No, and I don't need any", Willow gave back, giving him a hard look when he looked as if he wanted to protest; he held her gaze for a moment, then apparently shrugged it off, since he nodded and got into the front seat while the redhead joined her partner in the back, holding her hand and talking softly to her as the car took off towards the hospital, giving her best to hide her fear and telling herself again and again that everything would be alright.


	11. Chapter 11

Author's Note: Since I won't be online until the new year, updating a day early. Happy new year everyone!

"I came as fast as I could", Buffy told her best friend as she almost stormed into the small room, stopping next to her, "how is she?"

"Not well", Willow let her know at once, not looking away from the large observation window for a mere second, not even when she felt Buffy's hand slip into hers and give it a reassuring squeeze; on the other side of the window, two doctors were fussing over Pat, the demon lying in a hospital bed, an oxygen mask covering her mouth and nose, and hooked up to so many machines that it was hard to tell what they all were good for. To the dismay of both the witch and the Slayer, she wasn't the only patient in this impromptu ward; there were three other people in a state almost identical to hers, being checked by doctors and nurses, machines beeping and hissing all over the room as they monitored the four patients.

"I've never seen her like this", the witch added, finally looking at the blonde at her side, "while we were waiting for Dr Henderson's car, I realized she's never been sick since we got together, and now this…"

"Miss Rosenberg", Dr Henderson's voice came up before Buffy could reply anything, the elder woman making her way to the two with a brisk step, "I'm glad to see the transport I organized worked out just fine."

"It did, thank you again", Willow gave back, fighting the urge to turn away from the elder woman so she could look at her partner again, "so… is there anything you can tell us already…?"

"A few interesting facts", the doctor replied, pulling a battered looking notepad from her lab coat and flipping it open, "we've managed to keep this under wraps so far, but if we get more victims like the ones we already have here, things will be out of our hands soon. I really wouldn't like that. The strangest thing we noticed so far is that some corpses seem to evaporate into a dusty substance upon destroying the brain, while others just lie back down and go back to being dead. Also, the change of state after a bite happens rather slowly, but we have our best doctors working on a way to isolate what is responsible for this so we can start thinking of a cure."

"Good thing they don't all turn to dust, or your scientists would have a hard time with examining anything", Buffy mumbled, making the doctor nod, "do you have any idea why they sometimes turn to dust and sometimes don't?"

"No", Henderson gave back at once, "so far, we couldn't determine any reason for that. We're working on this though."

"And we know who is responsible for this", the Slayer told her after a moment, deciding that, with reanimated corpses in the morgue, talk of demons wouldn't shock the elder woman anymore, "namely, a demon. We're working on figuring out how to find him and how to stop this."

"A demon, huh", Henderson repeated, not sounding all too perturbed by the thought, "interesting. Just two days ago, I would have called my colleagues from the psychiatric clinic after hearing such a thing, but now, I have to admit, it doesn't seem too unrealistic anymore."

"Wait", Willow perked up before Buffy could reply anything to that, "you just said that the process after getting bitten takes quite long? When were the people in there with my partner bitten?"

"Twenty-four to thirty-six hours ago", Henderson informed her, giving her a curious look, "why do you ask?"

"Well", Willow gave back, throwing another glance through the observation window, "Pat was bitten just two hours ago, and she got so sick so fast…"

"This is new", Henderson nodded, raising an eyebrow, "from what we learned so far, the symptoms your partner displays right now only set in eighteen to twenty hours after the bite."

"So what does this mean?" the witch wanted to know, giving her lover another look through the window, "she'll turn even faster than the other victims?"

"I have no idea", the doctor replied, not sounding very compassionate, "but there are some very competent doctors checking on her right now. Now, if you'll excuse me…"

"Maybe if it's because of you-know-what", Buffy whispered to her friend, who just gave her a crestfallen look in reply, images of her partner as one of the undead already dancing through her mind; before the Slayer could come up with any reassuring words though, the sound of doctors yelling and loud beeping from various machines came up from behind the observation window, prompting them both to turn and look into the room again, Willow's eyes going wide when she realized that the reason for the ruckus was her partner, the taller woman having sat up in the bed and struggling against the doctors trying to make her lie back down.

Without thinking twice about it, Willow left Buffy where she was and rushed to the door leading into the room; to her dismay, she found it locked, but a moment of concentration and a small burst of magic took care of that, the doctors looking up in surprise when she came barging in seconds later.

"Ma'am!" one of them snapped, moving away from the bed and towards her, "I'm sorry, but you can't be in here, I need to ask you to—"

"Get out of my way", she interrupted him, in a voice so full of command that he automatically shut up and stepped back; she gave him another glare as she moved past him, then reached the bed, the doctors there still trying to hold her partner down, even though they were visibly straining against her, not having expected their patient to be so strong.

"Please, miss", one of them tried to reason with her, taken aback when she growled at him in reply, "you really shouldn't…"

"Pat", Willow tried to gain her attention, grasping her hand, only to wince when the demon's fingers tightened around hers in a steel-like grip, making it feel as if she'd break her fingers any moment, "what is it, what's wrong? Sweetie, talk to me, please…"

"I need to get up", Pat pressed out between grit teeth in reply, sweat pouring down her face once more, "now, tell them they have to let me get up…!"

"Miss, you really shouldn't", another doctor tried to reason with her again, only to let out a surprisingly high-pitched yelp when, after a moment of holding her partner's gaze, Willow suddenly grabbed the oxygen mask and tore it off, the thin rubber strips snapping with an audible noise, the witch ignoring it when the doctor yelled at her and demanded to know what the Hell she was doing, only getting more frantic when she hurriedly removed the various pads which were connecting the taller woman to the array of machines around the bed.

"What do you think you are doing!" the doctor finally regained his senses, grabbing her wrist in an attempt to stop her, "these are connected to important monitoring tools!"

"Take your hands off me and let her get up", Willow snapped in reply, giving him a glare that nearly made him step back, "trust me, she knows what she's doing, so move back!"

For a few more seconds, he held her gaze, looking as if he wanted to protest – and then he let go of her, seeing something in her eyes which was unsettling enough to make him listen without further protest, his colleagues following his example after a moment and taking a few steps back as well, the men exchanging glances as they asked themselves what exactly was going on and what might happen next.

* * *

"Come on", Willow told her lover, in a much kinder voice, helping the taller woman out of the bed; for a few moments, Pat leaned on her, breathing heavily, her legs trembling visibly –before she, with an amount of willpower so strong that Willow could almost feel it, steadied herself and asked the redhead to step back as well, prompting her to do so, an uneasy feeling filling her as she realized what her partner was planning to do.

"I still think this is a bad…", one of the doctors started, then trailed off as his eyes widened, all of them unable to look away when Pat clenched her fists and let out another growl, her hair spreading and thickening, the doctors gasping and gaping as it changed into fur, her muscles bulging visibly as her body grew bulkier, flames flickering up all over her body and filling the room with an unsteady dancing light.

"What the Hell is going on", one of the men whispered, staring with eyes so wide that Willow feared for a moment they might fall out; not sure what to reply, she remained quiet, just watched how her partner finished her transformation, the flames vanishing the moment she had done so, the only sound now being her heavy breaths as her fists opened and closed, as if she was trying to strangle some invisible opponent.

"Pat", the redhead now tried to gain her attention once more, taking a step closer to her, "what's going on? Is this helping you now…?"

"Not sure", the demon rumbled in reply, prompting all the doctors to take a step back in comical unison, one of them even making the sign of the cross, "but I think that…" She interrupted herself with a low, pained growl as she doubled over, then slumped down on her knees; crying out her name once more, Willow rushed to her side and knelt down next to her, ignoring it when one of the doctors shouted a warning to her.

"Oh God it hurts", Pat panted out when the witch asked her once more what was going on, giving her such a miserable look that it was making her heart clench up, "Willow, it hurts…"

Not sure what she should respond to this, Willow reacted by putting both arms around her and rubbing her back soothingly, once more briefly amazed at how soft her fur was; now that they saw that this strange creature a perfectly ordinary woman had turned into minutes ago wasn't making a move to eat any of them, the doctors dared to move closer again as well, still eying the demon with caution though, clearly not sure what to think of this new and interesting development.

"This is astounding", one of them whispered to another, "I wonder if she'd let us run some tests on her? How did she do that?"

"She's a demon", an unknown, female voice spoke up behind him, making him jump before he glanced over his shoulder, finding himself looking at a petit looking blonde with Dr Henderson in tow, "and she wouldn't be happy if you'd tell her about the test thing."

"Let's not forget that this still is our patient, even if she turned into that… thing", Henderson now added her opinion as well, gaining some respect from Buffy with those words, "and apparently, she's still as intelligent and sentient as she was before this transformation, so thinking of running tests on her like on some lab animal is ethically questionable."

Before the doctor could reply anything to that, Pat let out another, this time shockingly loud growl, making them all flinch and step back again; and then, Willow felt her tense in her embrace, her breath speeding up until she nearly panted, her hands clenching into tight fists again, yet another growl coming from tightly grit teeth as her head snapped back into her neck.

Not sure what else she could do, Willow just gave her best to soothe her as she kept holding her and rubbing her back; she could feel another tremble run through the taller woman's body, whispering calming words into her ear as she racked her mind to figure out what was going on – before the shivering of her partner suddenly increased in intensity, an anguished sounding groan coming from her as her fists unclenched and her fingers dug into the floor, leaving deep scratch marks in the white tiles.

"What's wrong with her?" Buffy demanded to know, moving past the small cluster of doctors and closer to the couple when it seemed as if by now, the demon was trembling too much to let Willow hold her much longer; glancing up at her best friend, the witch answered with a helpless shrug – before she nearly got pulled off her feet as Pat suddenly and unexpectedly came to her feet again, her whole body so tensed up that it felt hard as stone beneath the redhead's hands.

Despite that and the violent shivers which now were shaking her partner, Willow kept holding on, keeping her in a tender embrace; not sure what she could do, Buffy just watched, her gaze moving from her best friend to the demon and back again as she tried to figure out what exactly was happening to Pat.

"Get away from me", the demon suddenly panted out, her gaze focusing on Willow, "please, quick, get away from me!"

To her obvious dismay, the witch just stared at her in reply, clearly having no idea why she'd want her to move away; and thus, she did the only thing she could think of as she felt her control slip, making Willow cry out moments later by pushing her quite harshly, right into Buffy's arms, the Slayer letting out a surprised yelp as well when she caught her best friend and kept her from falling.

She still had time to say "What the", then Pat growled loudly again, prompting the doctors who had dared to come closer to move back once more – before she burst into flames, with enough force behind it to not only let the fire engulf her, but to send a pillar of fire all the way up to the ceiling, the shocked cries of everyone in the room mixing with the crackling of the flames.

"Oh wow", Buffy muttered, watching with wide eyes, unable to take her gaze away from the quite spectacular sight, "has she ever done that before…?"

"No", Willow gave back, staring as well, "I didn't even know she can do that…"

They still had a few more seconds to worry about how flammable exactly the ceiling of the room was, then the flames died back down again slowly, to the relief of everyone not having done more damage than a scorch mark on the ceiling; with a heavy breath that almost turned into a grunt, Pat relaxed visibly, prompting Willow to take a step closer to her again, even though she still kept a safe distance, after all not sure if the flames might come back any moment.

"Sweetie?" she thus said, giving her partner a worried look, "are you okay…?"

In response, Pat just nodded, now looking tired – before she took in another deep breath and started changing the back, the doctors letting out gasps and noises of surprise as they watched, all of them eying her curiously once the transformation was done and she stood there again in her human form, momentarily glad that the hospital gown she had been put in when she had arrived had survived the whole thing.

"This is remarkable", Henderson was the one to break the stunned silence which had formed after they all had gotten a good look at her, the cool and composed mask of the doctor slipping for once, "how did you do this?"

"One of the perks of being a demon", Pat gave back, moving back to her bed and sitting down on it, "even though this time, it kicked in quite late."

She smiled tiredly, the paleness of her skin and the dark ring beneath her good eye showing how much of a toll all of this had taken on her; still, she looked much better and healthier now than she had before she had changed, not sweating anymore and even having regained enough strength to talk, something she hadn't been capable of anymore when she had been taken here.

"Oh thank God", Willow breathed as she fully realized that now, at the second try, her partner's healing abilities finally had kicked in and had cured the sickness the zombie's bite had given her; and with a few fast steps, she made her way over to her partner and hugged her tightly, briefly closing her eyes as she felt the taller woman return the embrace and pat her back reassuringly, the other people in the room forgotten as she kept the taller woman in a tight embrace, overwhelmed with relief that she'd be alright.


	12. Chapter 12

Half an hour later, after checking the demon quite thoroughly and determining that she indeed was back to full health, a small cluster of doctors had formed about a microscope in the next room; with slight amusement, Willow, Pat and Buffy were watching how they took turns peeking through said microscope, then spoke to each other in hushed voices, glancing at the demon every now and then.

"I wonder what's so spectacular about your blood", Buffy finally said out loud what all three of them were thinking, "they've been fussing over that microscope for the last ten minutes."

"You are most welcome to join us and take a look", Henderson was the one to reply before the witch or the demon could do so, "it is truly remarkable."

In response, both Buffy and Pat looked at Willow, making her raise an eyebrow as she wondered why they thought she'd have more of an idea about what the microscope would show than they did; then, she shrugged those thoughts off and just nodded, making her way to the microscope, the doctors moving aside so she could take a look. Curious about what they all found so remarkable, the witch bent over the microscope and did just that; while she peered at the blood the doctors had put there to be viewed, Henderson explained to her that it had been taken from her partner when she had been brought in, but hadn't been examined before her "impressing transformation", since they all had been busy with the other patients.

"Oh wow", Willow mumbled to herself after just watching for a few moments, "that's… really remarkable. Will this help the other victims…?"

"We'll start working on finding this out right away", Henderson let her know while Pat finally decided that she, too, wanted to know what was so special about her blood and moved to her partner's side; after peering through the microscope once more, Willow moved aside to let the taller woman do the same, placing one hand on her back as she bent over the scientific instrument, in need for close bodily contact now that she was back to full health.

Frowning, she watched the strangely misshapen, grey things move around in her blood, sluggishly and slowly; and as if that wasn't freaky enough, since she knew very well that such things had no purpose in blood, there were other, smaller, dark red shapes, which closed in on the grey ones and more or less absorbed them, one after the other.

"The grey ones are what we determined as responsible for the change from alive to undead", Henderson explained next to her, making her look up again and at her, "but the red ones are only in your blood, and not in the samples we took from the other patients."

"We think that it comes from your… unique abilities", another doctor threw in, smiling nervously at her, as if he expected her to burst into flames and burn him, or maybe turn into her furry form again, "our next steps are to see if we can isolate those antibodies and use them to cure the other patients."

"Let's hope that won't give them my unique abilities", Pat dryly gave back, making air quotes around the last two words, something which prompted her partner to giggle, "or I doubt they'd be happy."

"Of course we'll make sure this won't happen before we use this on anyone", Henderson replied just as dryly, making Willow smirk again, "we are not stupid, as you surely noticed. I have to say though, it was lucky you got bitten after all."

"Yeah, lucky me", the demon muttered with a roll of her good eye, "but now that I'm fine again, can we please go back home? We still need to figure out who got a visit by our friend Andras and how to stop all of that."

"Before you leave, I'd like to take some more of your blood", Henderson let her know, already gesturing at one of her colleagues so he'd get her what she'd need to do just that, "you surely don't mind, do you?"

"No", Pat sighed in reply, "but please do it quickly, I'm really, really tired."

"Poor you", Willow showed some sympathy while one of the doctors organized a chair for her so she could sit down, explaining it wouldn't be smart for her to stand while they were taking blood; since Henderson until this whole mess only had dealt with dead people, she let someone else take over, the doctor instructing the black haired woman to roll up her sleeve as soon as she had sat down, beaming at how clearly the veins were visibly beneath the skin in the crook of her arm.

"I wish all my patients had such good veins", he complimented her while he carefully inserted the needle; on the demon's other side, Willow grasped her hand and held it, even though Pat didn't look as if she was very disturbed by the doctor taking her blood, the witch still in need for physical contact though, once more fully realizing what would have happened to her lover if her healing abilities hadn't kicked in after all.

With his brow furrowed in concentration, the doctor took some blood from the taller woman, filling several thin plastic tubes with the crimson liquid; once five of them were full, he decided that this was enough and slowly pulled the needle back out, then pressed the small cotton ball Henderson already had readied on the small puncture wound and told the demon to hold that there, making her nod as she pulled her hand from Willow's grasp and held the cotton ball down with two fingers.

"Thank you", Henderson told her, now even managing a small smile, "this will be very helpful. May we call you in case we need more?"

"Yeah, sure", the demon shrugged, "no problem."

"But not tonight", the witch threw in while the doctor nodded, "she'll need some sleep first."

"Of course", Henderson agreed at once, to the redhead's obvious satisfaction, "you really should go home now and get some sleep. I'll tell our driver to take you home."

"Thank you", Willow smiled at her, then asked her girlfriend if she was ready to go, making her nod – before she remembered that she still was wearing the hospital gown and asked for her clothing, one of the doctors hurrying off to retrieve it while Buffy let out a hearty yawn, making the other two women smile in response.

"Seems I'm not the only one who needs some sleep", Pat then said with a teasing undertone in her voice, smirking when Buffy glared at her, then shrugged, another yawn escaping her before she replied. "Yeah, well, after all the fighting at the cemetery where you got bitten, I went to another one and fought there, too, and then I went home to sleep, and after an hour of doing that, Willow called and told me you're sick. So yeah, I need some rest, too, and it's all your fault."

"Well, excuse me", Pat smirked in reply, "but at least, me getting bitten had one good side effect, namely the nice doctors here finding a cure for regular people who suffered the same fate. At least I hope so."

"Here's your clothing, ma'am", the doctor now returned with a bundle of clothes in his hands, before Buffy could reply anything, "and thank you again for allowing us to take some of your blood, this might really help."

"You're welcome", the demon smirked in reply, taking her clothes from him, "and, um, can I go somewhere to change? I'd rather not do that here for everyone to see."

"Oh, of course, follow me, please", the doctor replied at once; before she did so though, Pat took the time to kiss her partner quickly, but tenderly, then followed him to a dressing room down the hallway, once more realizing how tired she felt, only eager now to get back home and into bed.

* * *

In the next morning, Willow was the first one to wake up, as she did so often; Pat still was slumbering deeply, snoring quite loudly as she laid sprawled on her back, the sight and the sounds she was letting out making the witch smile to herself as she studied her partner, still relieved that she had ended up fully healthy again after all. For a few more minutes, she just stayed where she was, watching her loved one sleep; then, she got up at last and made her way into the bathroom, pondering their current predicament as she brushed her teeth and washed her face, asking herself how they were supposed to find the one to whom the demon Andras had offered his help – she knew that technically, she could try to summon him, but after the chaos this had caused with Malphas, she wasn't all too sure that this was a good idea.

Making a mental note to herself to ask Giles about this, she finished her morning routine and made her way into the kitchen, preparing the coffee machine there and starting it before she peered into the fridge, glad to see that today, her appetite for ham and eggs would be sated, getting the ingredients for them out and placing them on the kitchen counter before she moved to the cupboard for a frying pan.

Just when she put it on the oven though and started pouring oil into it, the phone rang in the living room, making her jump as the unexpected noise startled her; quickly, before the noise might wake up her partner, she hurried to get the call, not surprised when she checked the display and saw that it was Giles calling, momentarily wondering if he somehow had felt her think about him and thus was calling her.

"Good morning Giles", she greeted him cheerfully, "I was just thinking about you twenty minutes ago."

"Good thoughts, I hope", the Brit replied, and she could practically hear the smile on his face, "and I hope I didn't wake you up? Buffy told me you had quite the adventure last night."

"Oh God, yes", the redhead confirmed with a grimace, "but luckily, it ended well, I already feared we might end up with Zombie-Pat."

"Good we didn't", Giles gave back at once, briefly making her wonder if he thought about how she might have reacted to this happening, then shrugging those thoughts off as she voiced her agreement, asking the Watcher for the reason of his call afterwards.

"Well, I wanted to ask if you're both fine", he let her know in response, "and now that you confirmed this already, if you're up for some magic later today, in the afternoon perhaps?"

"Sure", the witch agreed at once, "what do you have in mind?"

"We need to find out who exactly Andras made his offer to", Giles told her what she already knew in reply, "so I looked up spells which might help us doing so, and found one that looks promising."

"What does it do?" Willow wanted to know, curious – she knew a variety of spells, and had heard of several new ones during her stay in England, but so far, none which would have been useful for the current situation had popped into her mind.

"It works similar to the demon locator spell", the Brit explained in reply, "but it locates people with very strong emotions. Of course, it will only help if the person who made the deal with Andras now feels despair over what he did. Or gloats about it, that might work too."

"I hope for him or her that it's despair", Willow mumbled, making Giles nod even though she couldn't see him doing so, "because gloating about this would just be awful."

"Indeed", the Watcher now agreed verbally as well, "and I suggest that you come to my home at two o'clock, I'll have everything we'll need for the spell ready until then."

"Sounds good to me", Willow agreed, "see you at two then. Should we bring anything?"

"Just your magical abilities", Giles smiled in reply, "and your girlfriend's immunity to fire, there have been several… incidents with unwanted flames reported from people who cast the spell."

"Oh, she'll be jolly glad to hear that", the witch dryly replied, making him let out a short chuckle before he regained his composure; he reassured her that there would be no danger for her, and that thus, Pat didn't need to worry, then said his goodbye and ended the call, prompting her to put the phone back down as well; momentarily, she glanced at the bedroom door, wondering if she should wake her partner up, then decided against it – after the excitement of the previous night, Pat probably needed a bit more sleep until she'd be ready to get out of bed.

Thus, she returned to the kitchen, finally getting to finish with preparing the ham and eggs; and while she stirred the food in the pan, she heard the bedroom door open and smiled slightly to herself, greeting her girlfriend with that smile when she came trotting into the kitchen half a minute later, rubbing at her good eye and letting out a yawn.

"Good morning", Willow smiled, then giggled as she only got another yawn in reply; still keeping her focus on the food, since she didn't want to end up letting it burn, she told her partner that she didn't need to get up yet and that she could go back to sleep if she wanted, her smile widening when the demon stepped up to her and wrapped both arms around her from behind.

"Nah", she then mumbled, resting her chin on the redhead's shoulder, "not tired anymore. Just morning grouch, as always."

"But a surprisingly talkative morning grouch, seeing you just got up", Willow smirked, then gestured at the coffee machine with her free hand, adding that the coffee was almost done, giggling again when Pat grunted "Awesome" in reply.

"Giles called while you were still slumbering", the witch let her know while the taller woman moved away from her to check on the coffee machine herself, giving it yet another glare as if to speed it up, "he asked us to come to his place this afternoon, at two. He found a spell which might be useful to find the one who made a deal with Andras."

"Okay", the demon shrugged while the coffee machine stopped hissing and blubbering, showing that the coffee was done; quickly, Pat helped herself to a cup and poured some of the dark liquid into it, then added milk and her usual big amount of sugar, speaking on after the first sip, now sounding a bit more awake. "What does the spell do? It's not dangerous, is it?"

"According to Giles, it's not, not for me", Willow let her know in reply, removing the pan from the stove and splitting the food in two even portions on the plates she had readied, "there might be flames, which is why he wants you to come along, immunity to fire and all, but he said they won't endanger me. Maybe the map will burn like it did that one time when I tried the locator spell, this new spell is supposed to point out people with strong emotions and he hopes we'll find Andras' buddy that way."

"Hopefully", Pat muttered, "we need to stop that before they need to drain me because more and more people get bitten."

"Good thing that whatever is in your blood might cure them, though", Willow smiled at her as they both sat down to eat, "just think about how many lives you might safe with your blood, without even doing anything."

"Making up for all the people I killed, huh", Pat gave back, shrugging when the witch raised an eyebrow at her, gulping down a forkful of egg before she went on. "Well, it's true. Even if Buffy said I redeemed myself by now."

"You did", Willow reassured her, reaching over the table to grasp her free hand and smiling at her, "and you keep doing so each time you kill a baddy or rescue someone." She squeezed her hand tenderly, making her smile back after a moment; then, the redhead leaned over the table for a quick, but tender kiss before they both focused on their food again, already looking forward to their visit at Giles' and to performing the spell which hopefully would help to put an end to the whole mess.


	13. Chapter 13

"Welcome, welcome, please make yourselves comfortable", Giles greeted them as they arrived at his house punctually at two o'clock, even though they had been held up a tiny bit by running into yet another one of the walking dead; thanks to the state of decay the woman already had been in, with her lower jaw gone and patches of skin and flesh missing all over her body, they hadn't thought twice about killing her, and Pat had done just that, making it a quick kill by ramming the dagger she had brought for just that reason into the zombie's eye.

"I guess that's supposed to be my seat", Willow commented as she entered the Watcher's living room, gesturing at the place where a map of Sunnydale, a bowl and various herbs and powders had been readied; nodding, Giles gave her a smile, then asked them if they wanted anything to drink, raising an eyebrow when Pat told him that killing made her thirsty and that thus, some water would be nice.

"Another zombie", she explained at the look he shot her, "and this time, I managed not to get bitten, yay me."

"Yes, well done", Giles dryly replied, making her smirk; after a moment, he briefly smiled back, then made his way into the kitchen to get her the water while the demon sat down next to her partner, eying the stuff the Brit had readied curiously.

"What's this?" she then wanted to know, reaching out a poking a glass filled with small, slimy looking balls with her finger; holding back a grin, Willow told her that it was a jar of frog eyes, giggling at the "Ew!" her partner let out in response.

"It's so cute how squeamish you can be at times", she then told the taller woman, another giggle escaping her when Pat raised an eyebrow at her in response, "I mean, here you are, the big bad strong demon, and then frog eyes make you go ew."

"Well, they are gross", the demon shrugged in reply, eying them once again, "just look at them, all slimy. Do you have to touch them for the spell?"

"No", Willow replied, somehow managing to keep a straight face as she went on, "I have to eat them."

"What!" Pat cried out, staring at her in shock – before she noticed the mischief glint in her girlfriend's eyes and huffed, crossing her arms over her chest as she gave her a strict look.

"Not funny", she then told her, the annoyed tone of her voice finally making Willow lose her composure; she laughed and told her that it was quite funny, then let out a cooing "Aww" and reached up with one hand to ruffle her hair, just in time for Giles to see as he returned with the glass of water and a cup of tea for himself.

"I don't see why a part necessary for the spell to work should be funny", he told Willow, making her look up at him in shock, "because you do have to, in fact, eat two of those eyes. They grant you the power to see the one we seek."

"What!" Willow squeaked, her smile wiped off her face within the blink of an eye, "you can't be serious!"

For a few more moments, he held her gaze seriously; then, he suddenly smirked, making it the witch's turn to huff and to look annoyed while Pat chuckled next to her.

"Serves you right", the demon then told her, "for nearly making me freak out with the same joke."

"Hmph", Willow let out in reply, making her partner chuckle once more; after a few more moments of looking annoyed, the redhead smiled as well and leaned in for a brief kiss, then her gaze moved to Giles as she asked him how exactly the spell had to be performed.

"It should be easy for someone with your skill level", the Watcher gave back, picking up the book he had readied and opening it on the page where the spell had been noted down before he handed it to Willow, "and all you need to do is the chant, I'll take care of the ingredients while you say the words."

"Oh, nice, teamwork", the redhead smiled, making the Brit smile back at her and nod; then, he fell silent so she could study the spell, a frown wrinkling her brow every now and then as she puzzled out how to pronounce a few of the Latin words, Pat watching in interest, basically able to hear the wheels in her head work as she figured the magic out.

"Alright", she mumbled after a few minutes of silence, "I got it. Ready when you are, Giles."

Nodding, the Watcher moved closer to her and picked up two of the ingredients he had readied; he gave her another nod, and she started chanting, Pat watching silently how Giles started mixing the herbs and powders, grimacing when he, as the last thing to go in there, opened the jar of frog eyes and let two of them fall into the bowl just as Willow said the last two words of the spell.

For a few seconds, nothing happened, making the demon wonder if she'd been supposed to add fire and they had forgotten to tell her; and then, the ingredients of the bowl vanished with a surprisingly loud _poof _into a cloud of smoke, making the taller woman jump while Willow and Giles both leaned forward, peering at the map in excitement.

"Look, it's working", Willow beamed as lights in various colours started to pop up on the map; she giggled as she spotted two red glowing dots in Giles' home, explaining to her partner that this had to be them, not having to tell her why the lights were red; then, Giles pointed out a brightly white one at the High School and a muted grey one at Sunnydale's churches.

"We should check these out", he let the couple know, "the white stands for a very strong positive emotion and the grey for the exact opposite. One of these might be our culprit."

"I suggest we go to the high school first", Pat replied, looking at the map and studying the other lights, one of them a bright green, showing jealousy or envy, and another just as red as Willow's and hers, making her smirk, "because of the Hellmouth and all."

"Good point", the redhead nodded, "wouldn't surprise me if Artas had popped up there."

Agreeing to this idea as well, Giles told them to be careful, just in case the culprit was there and knew more magic than how to make deals with a demon; they reassured him they would take care, getting up from the couch and letting him know they'd call him as soon as they had found something.

"I'll call Buffy", he told them in reply, "and ask her to check out the church."

"You do that", Pat nodded, "and tell her to call us, too, in case she finds anything."

"Will do", Giles promised, making them both nod once more; then, they finally left his house and headed to the high school together while he called the Slayer, all of them hoping they'd find the culprit and would put an end to this infestation of the undead.

* * *

"So how exactly will we find the one who is responsible for the pretty white light?" Pat wanted to know as they made their way to the high school together, raising an eyebrow at the way Willow beamed at her, her happy expression explained when she replied moments later.

"I was hoping you'd ask that", the witch let her partner know, "because now I get to show off my amazing magic skills to you."

"Alright", the demon shrugged, stopping her walk when Willow did the same; briefly, the smaller woman closed her eyes as she concentrated, then whispered "Reveal" just loud enough for Pat to hear, a smirk tugging at the corners of her lips when the black haired woman let out a surprised yelp as a deeply red glow formed around Willow and, as a quick glance showed, around herself.

To her amazement, no one else seemed to notice this; at the noise she involuntarily had let out at the sight, a few of the pedestrians sharing the sidewalk with them had given her a curious look, but now, they all just walked past, as if the two women standing there were not engulfed in deep red light.

"They can't see it", Willow explained in a low voice, having noticed the way her partner looked at the other people outside and waited for some kind of reaction from then, "I can see it because I cast the spell, and you can see it because you're naturally inclined to magic, as I keep telling you, and as you keep ignoring."

"I'm not ignoring it", Pat protested at once, "hey, I let you teach me that spell so you can borrow my healing, so there."

"But you could learn much more than that", Willow countered at once, a discussion they had had countless times ever since they had gotten together; and as always, Pat gave her the same response, namely telling her that she surely could, but saw no real need for it since Willow was much better with that stuff anyway.

"One of these days, I'll get you to let me teach you more", the redhead promised in reply, rolling her eyes when the demon just shrugged; then, with a smile to show her words hadn't been meant as harsh as they might have sounded, she grasped Pat's hand and started walking with her again, the red glow around them fading away slowly after they had taken a few steps.

"It's not fading because we're moving, right?" the taller woman wanted to know, frowning slightly, "because I'll doubt you'll manage to make the whole high school sit still."

"It's not fading because we're moving", Willow confirmed, smiling at her partner's concerns, "it just does that after a while, unless I keep saying the word in regular intervals to keep it up. If the person in the high school is so happy that they show as a brightly white light though, it shouldn't be too hard to find them even if I let it fade."

"Good point", Pat nodded, "but I do hope that the one responsible for this is not the one we'll find in a few minutes, because gloating about causing something like that… Not exactly nice."

"That's what I said to Giles", Willow giggled, making the taller woman smirk as well; then, they arrived at the high school, both of them looking as inconspicuous as possible as they entered the building, the corridors empty since they had arrived during an on-going lesson.

"Alright", the witch mumbled, glancing around, "let's see if our possible culprit is somewhere nearby." She closed her eyes again, feeling the demon squeeze her hand as she concentrated; it only took her a moment to build up enough concentration again, her voice once more barely above a whisper as she mumbled the word, making Pat flinch once more moments later – this time not thanks to the red glow though, but because a bright white one suddenly shone out of one of the classrooms, the sight making the redhead smile happily.

"There we go", she stated the obvious, gesturing at the door leading to the classroom, "in there. The question now is, how do we handle this?"

"Well", Pat gave back after checking her watch, "I think barging in during an on-going class is a bad idea, also we don't really have a believable reason for doing that, right? We should wait until the class is over."

"Good point", the witch agreed, glancing at the door leading to the class room, "we'd probably end up in the headmaster's office if we tried to get the one responsible out of there… And maybe we shouldn't wait here in the hallway, either, someone might see us and ask us what we are doing here."

Nodding, the taller woman looked around in reply, then said "Over there" and led Willow to yet another class room; to the witch's surprise, it was empty, and she eyed her partner critically as she asked her how she had figured out that no one was in there.

"Good hearing", the black haired woman smirked in reply, making the redhead smile by holding the door open for her, "no noise coming from this room, so I figured it's either empty or there's some sort of exam going on, in which case no one would have seen us peeking in through that little window in the door."

"Lucky me that my girlfriend's a demon with so good hearing", she smirked in reply as Pat closed the door behind herself, "even though you're probably endangering that whenever you listen to your music with your headphones, it's so loud."

"Nah, my ears will be fine", Pat gave back at once, then glanced around the empty classroom before her gaze focused on her girlfriend again, a lusty glint in her good eye as she spoke on. "So… ever made out on your teacher's desk?"

"Pat!" Willow scolded with a short burst of the giggles, "for one thing, that wasn't the high school I went to, cause that got blown up by Buffy and us, so it's not my teacher's desk, and anyway, we're here on Slayer business, we shouldn't make out."

"Well, right now, our Slayer business is waiting for that class to end", Pat smirked, already putting both arms around the redhead's waist and making her smile despite her initial protest, "so making out should be okay, right?"

"You make quite the good point, again", Willow had to admit, smiling slightly as she let the taller woman lead her to the teacher's desk; with a little hop, she ended up sitting on said desk, putting her arms around the taller woman's neck and smiling up at her.

"You know", she then mumbled as she felt the demon's hands caress her back tenderly, "if someone had told me I'd make out with another woman on a teacher's desk while I'd still been in high school, I would have called them crazy."

"Lucky for me you're not calling me crazy now", Pat smirked in reply, making her giggle again as she nodded; and then, she pulled the black haired woman closer, their lips meeting a moment later, a content sigh escaping her as the kiss deepened.

Once again, she found herself thinking about what would have happened to her girlfriend if her healing abilities hadn't kicked in to defeat the disease responsible for creating more and more of the undead; the mere thought made her shudder, and caused the kiss to become more passionate, something the taller woman clearly was enjoying.

Finally, the witch had to pull back from the kiss, due to running out of air; she breathed heavily as she looked up at her partner, glad now that she was sitting, since her legs felt decidedly shaky all of a sudden.

"I'm so glad you're okay", she blurted, briefly making Pat wonder what she was talking about – before she remembered what nearly had happened to her and gave the redhead a calming smile, reaching up with one hand to caress her cheek tenderly.

"Of course I'm okay", she then told her, in a low and hopefully soothing voice, "do you think I'd just turn into a zombie and leave you behind or something? I'm too selfish to do that, I like being around you too much."

"In your own demony way, that was kinda sweet", Willow giggled in reply, "and I'm glad you like being around me."

"Well, in fact, I love being around you", the demon smirked, prompting the redhead's smile to widen, "and I love you, in general. Was that less demony now?"

"Yes", the witch reassured her with a happy grin, "that was really sweet now. And I love you, too."

The couple beamed at each other, then shared another kiss; and just as they pulled apart again, the bell signalled the end of the class, reminding them of their task here as they exchanged a look, then moved closer to the door leading to the hallway and peered out the small window in the door, Willow mumbling "Reveal" to herself once more as the students started leaving the class room, waiting to spot the one they were here for.


	14. Chapter 14

"There", Willow and Pat said almost in perfect unison as the one responsible for the bright white light they had seen earlier came out of the classroom, bathed in said light from head to toe again; it was a young girl, beaming happily at her classmates and chatting with them in excitement as she made her way down the hall with them.

"Let me handle this", the redhead whispered to her girlfriend as they stepped out of their hiding room together, "people think you're scary."

"Good", Pat mumbled in reply, falling back though as they followed the girl; apparently, it was their lucky day, since the teenager parted ways with her classmates once they had left the building, heading to the bike rack, humming to herself as she made her way to her bike, already digging through her bag for the key to the lock she'd used to secure the bike with.

"Excuse me?" Willow called out to her, giving her best to look and sound friendly as the girl flinched, then turned to look at her, momentarily looking puzzled – before she broke into a wide, happy smile, the reaction momentarily taking the witch aback.

"Hi!" the girl greeted her, forgetting her search for the key and moving to meet her halfway, "are you from college? Or from that company which called me?"

"Um", the witch replied, at a loss for words, something the girl clearly decided to ignore though since she beamed at her again, then took another step closer, sounding quite enthusiastic when she went on. "Oh, you must be from the company! Are you a CEO? Is this woman your bodyguard?"

"…no", Willow gave back, after considering lying for a moment; apparently, the girl took this answer as an implication that she was from the college then, beaming at her again as she spoke on, without giving the redhead a chance to go on. "Oh, okay then! Well I told your recruiting guy, I'm not sure yet what I'll do. That offer was really good, you know, so maybe I'll work there a few years first and then go to college and get my PhD. But I really dunno yet. I'm so happy though that I have so many possibilities!"

"Of course we'd be glad if you'd choose to join our college", Pat now threw in, deciding to ignore Willow's advice about letting her talk, since the witch clearly was at a loss for words, "but I imagine you must be really happy about getting to choose that way, huh?"

"Yes, of course", the girl nodded, almost bouncing on the spot as she smiled happily at her, clearly not thinking of her as scary, "not many people get such offers from such big companies, especially not at my age!"

"I guess so", the witch now found her voice again, making herself smile at the girl, "when exactly did you get that offer, if you don't mind me asking? After you took the SAT test?"

"Yes, exactly", the girl nodded at once, "but I told them I don't know yet, I mean, they pay very nicely, but college is important too, isn't it?"

"Yes", Willow agreed, momentarily forgetting the reason for her visit her as she remembered a similar offer she had been made after taking that test in high school, "you know, I got an offer like that too after the SAT, but I declined and went to college instead, if they really want you, they'll wait until you're done there."

"That's what my mom said, too", the girl nodded at once, "but of course you'd tell me that, if you're from the college. What is your function there?"

"Oh, this and that", Willow replied airily, hoping the girl wouldn't ask any more detailed questions, "but now, my… assistant and I really have to go, we have some other pressing appointments. And we hope you'll decide to grace UC Sunnydale with your intelligence!"

"Um, okay", the girl gave back, looking a bit taken aback; Willow gave her another bright smile, then turned and hurried off, the demon following her and snickering quietly under her breath, only speaking up when she could be sure they were out of earshot from the still confused looking teenager. "We hope you'll decide to grace UC Sunnydale with your intelligence? Where did that come from?"

"Be quiet", the witch told her in reply, giving her a mock glare, "I kinda… panicked when she asked what my function was, okay? We really should have made up some better cover story."

"Well, at least we know now that she's not responsible", Pat smirked, still amused by her partner's odd choice of words, "let's hope Buffy has more luck in that church, even though she doesn't have that handy spell to reveal the one responsible for the pretty light on the map."

"Well, the grey glow symbolized big despair", Willow pointed out in reply, "so she might just have to look at the one responsible and figure it out. I'm gonna call her and ask how she's doing at the church."

With those words, she dug out her cell phone while Pat used the chance given by this to light up a cigarette; then, she leaned against the nearest wall while she watched her partner using the speed-dial function to call Buffy's number and held the phone to her ear, the call to her relief taken after the second ring.

"Hey Buffy", the witch greeted her friend, even though thanks to caller ID, the Slayer had seen who was calling anyway, "how did it go at the church?"

"Not so good", the blonde replied at once, making Willow frown, "I'm in front of it right now, I had to run out when my phone started ringing and people glared at me, but I'm not sure if any of them here is responsible for this. Giles said you can figure out how to single them out, can you come here and do that?"

"Sure", Willow replied at once, "we're on our way, we're pretty sure the person responsible should be there, because the one at the high school was a bust, just a girl insanely happy about her possibilities in life."

"Well, lucky her", Buffy gave back, smirking, "but unfortunately, there are many people here who look as if they are despairing. The church's surprisingly full, considering it's afternoon on a workday, by the way."

"Probably because of the zombie thing", the redhead shrugged in reply, then let her know once more that they'd hurry; and, after Buffy had voiced her agreement, ended the call, prompting Pat to move away from the wall while she quickly informed her of the conversation's result.

"I was hoping we wouldn't need to go to the church", the demon sighed in reply, clearly not all too happy about this new development, "I still don't like churches. Even though I've been such a good demon for years now."

"Poor you", Willow showed sympathy in reply, even though she couldn't hold back a small smile, "but if you want to, you can wait outside while Buffy and I check it out. Just in case you'll throw up or something if you go inside with us."

"That actually might happen", the taller woman replied with a grimace, "so, yeah, I'd prefer waiting outside. It won't be dangerous for the two of you, right?"

"I don't think so", Willow smiled at her, grasping her free hand again as they started walking once more, "it'll just be a puny human after all, not the demon Andras himself or something."

"Let's hope it's not a puny human like Buffy or yourself", Pat teased in reply, smirking at how the witch cleared her throat as an answer, "or it might get dangerous after all."

"Even if it's a witch or someone with supernatural strength, I'm sure we'll be fine", Willow let her know after thinking about this for a moment, "we've kicked butt together before I met you, you know."

"Yup, I'm well aware of that, I just like teasing you every now and then", the black haired woman smirked in reply, chuckling when the witch huffed; then, the couple grinned at each other and shared a brief, but tender kiss before they hurried on towards the church, already curious about what they would find there.

* * *

Already from afar, they could see Buffy waiting in front of the church, the blonde playing with her cell phone to pass the time, looking up and putting it away though when Willow called out to her; smiling, she moved to meet the couple halfway, shaking her head when the witch asked if anyone had left since the call.

"Nope", she then confirmed verbally as well, "they're still busy praying in there, and the priest is holding some kind of impromptu sermon, at least, no mass was planned for today according to their billboard."

"Ugh, sermons, that's even worse than just the church interior", Pat grimaced in reply, making Buffy giggle slightly – before she asked the demon if she'd wait outside, not surprised when the taller woman nodded at once.

"One of the disadvantages of being a demon", she then teased the black haired woman, making her frown at her, "you can't go into a church without freaking out."

"I don't freak out", Pat corrected her, putting air quotes around the last two words and making Willow giggle, as well, "I just start feeling like shit. And that wouldn't be helpful."

"Yeah, just imagine", the witch felt it necessary to join the playful ribbing, "she walks in and throws up right in the middle aisle. I bet the priest would be thrilled."

"I could blame it on the sermon, depending what he's preaching about", Pat smirked, making the other two laugh; then, Buffy suggested that they should go inside now, making her best friend nod while the demon spotted a bench not too far away and told them she'd sit down and wait there.

"Alright, I hope we won't take long", Willow told her, then kissed her quickly; after the kiss, the taller woman made her way to said bench while the witch and the Slayer entered the church together, doing their best to do so quietly since they didn't want to gain any unwanted attention from the people there.

To their relief though, no one glanced in their direction, not even the priest standing at the pulpit and holding his sermon; all the people in the church, a surprisingly big number considering it was a workday afternoon, sat in the rows with their heads bowed, the words of the priest making Willow raise an eyebrow at Buffy as they both realized what he was talking about.

"…and what do we see as result of our godless life?" he was asking in this very moment, gesturing empathically with both arms, "the dead are coming back from their graves, to hunt us and hurt us!"

"What a pleasant, hopeful and uplifting message", Buffy whispered to the witch as they moved to one of the benches in the far back, not wanting to stand in the middle aisle and attract attention there after all, "I bet this is just what those people need."

"For sure", Willow whispered back, then smiling innocently when an elder woman in front of her turned and glared at her, mouthing "shut up" while on the pulpit, the priest kept on preaching about the walking dead and about how prayer and belief in God was needed to send them back their graves.

"Beheading works too", Buffy murmured under her breath, forcing the redhead to hold back laughter; she nodded, making sure to regain her composure before she concentrated, briefly closing her eyes to do so and trying to ignore the priest's preaching as she focused on the magic she had to do now.

Curiously, Buffy watched how her breathing became slow and calm as her concentration reached the level needed to do her magic; and then, she mumbled "Reveal" under her breath once more, opening her eyes again a second later, forced to hold back a gasp when she saw the grey light she had been hoping for and from whom it was originating.

"What?" Buffy whispered, looking around as she couldn't spot anything out of the ordinary, asking herself why Willow was looking so surprised, "what do you see? What happened?"

"It's the priest", the witch whispered back, unable to take her gaze away from the elder man, "he's the one despairing so much that the spell picked up on it…"

"So it was him?" the blonde wanted to know, shocked, but at least remembering to keep her voice low, even though the elder woman in front of them turned once more to give them yet another glare, "but why would a priest make a deal with a demon?"

"Guess we'll have to wait until he's done with the sermon and ask him to find out", the witch whispered back, "wait, I'll text Pat so she'll know why it'll take us a bit longer until we come back outside…"

"But be careful so the lady there won't notice", the blonde whispered, then glared at the back of the elder woman's head, asking herself if she'd still glare at them like that if she'd be able to see what Willow saw; briefly, the witch smiled at her, then nodded before she dug out her cell phone and quickly typed the message to her partner, making sure to hold the phone so that no one else but Buffy right next to her would see what she was doing.

_The priest is the one who set off the spell, _she wrote, glancing up every now and then to make sure no one was watching her, especially not said priest, _we'll wait until he finished the sermon and then try to talk to him._

After sending the message, she realized that she had forgotten to put her phone into silent mode and quickly did that, not wanting the incoming-message sound to echo through the church; and right after she had pushed the button which confirmed the change, the phone's display started shining brightly, informing her that the demon's answer had come in.

_OK, _the demon had written, as always not bothering to type a long reply, reminding Willow of the fact that she couldn't stand texting, _take care._

Smiling, Willow showed the message to Buffy, then tucked the phone back into her pocket and leaned back into the bench, her gaze focused on the priest as she waited for him to finish the sermon, asking herself what the man's reaction would be once Buffy and she would confront him about what he might have done.


	15. Chapter 15

Finally, after another forty minutes of preaching about how only God would help Sunnydale to deal with the infestation of the undead, the sermon finally came to an end; Buffy and Willow watched how the priest said the last few words to the congregation, all of them responding with a mumbled "amen" before they got up from their seats and slowly started to file out of the church, none of them bothering to even glance at the two women waiting for them all to leave.

Once the last people had stepped outside, Buffy and Willow got up from their seats together and made their way down the middle aisle, the priest by now having moved from the pulpit to the altar and moving objects to and fro there, glancing at the two over his shoulder when Willow said "Excuse me?" and giving them a curious look as he turned around to face them.

"Yes?" he then said, another curious glance accompanying his words, "how can I help you?"

"Your sermon was pretty… interesting", Buffy was the one to speak up, "about the walking dead and everything. Did many members of your congregation get hurt by them?"

"No", the priest replied at once, "but unfortunately, the less believing relatives of some of my regular congregation members were hurt. Also, new faces appeared in the services since this… started."

"That's a good thing for your church though, right?" Willow wanted to know, giving him a hopefully charming smile, "more people coming to hear your sermons, I mean?"

"It only will be a good thing if they stay in our congregation", the priest replied, eying her strangely, "and, to be honest and quite frank with you, I haven't seen you two here before, either. Is your family affected by this plague as well?"

"No", the redhead replied, "but we are… investigating the plague, and were hoping you might help us with that?"

"Me?" the priest wanted to know at once, with a flicker in his eyes that was noticed by both Buffy and Willow, "why me? I'm but a man of God, trying to give help and reassurance to those who need it in these difficult times."

"And that's very kind of you", Buffy reassured him, giving him a charming smile, "but, forgive me if I'm too rash, but shouldn't this make you happy?"

"Excuse me?" the priest gave back, giving her a confused glance, even though the flicker came up in his eyes again; next to the blonde, Willow had to hold back the urge to roll her eyes, thanks to the rather blunt approach the Slayer had chosen.

"Sorry for being so blunt", Buffy now told him, smiling at him once more, "but... we have our ways to see what people really feel, and you are everything but happy. Why? Your church is full, you can help people, this is why you became a priest, right?"

"I don't know what you are talking about", the elder man replied after a moment, his eyes briefly flickering away from the blonde's face, convincing Willow even more that he was lying and that he had something to do with all of this, "and if you don't have any need for spiritual help, I think you should go now."

"We're not done yet", Buffy replied at once, ignoring the annoyed look he gave her; figuring that he wouldn't confess despite how bad he felt about what he had done according to the spell Willow had cast, she decided to go back to being blunt, her next words making the priest's eyes widen.

"What did he offer you when you made your deal with him? More people in your church? The biggest church in Sunnydale? A whole new bunch of believers?", she wanted to know, holding his gaze, noticing how he swallowed heavily while Willow gave her an uneasy look, clearly not sure if confronting the priest like this had been such a good idea, especially since they weren't fully sure yet that he really had been the one who had made a pact with Andras.

"I don't know what you are talking about", he told her after a moment, his gaze flickering away from her once more, "and I really think you should leave now."

The way he swallowed again as he waited for them to listen to him and leave was just yet another sign for the fact that he was lying; and thus, Willow decided to go out on a limb as well, giving her best to sound kind when she replied.

"We're not here to accuse you, or to make trouble for you", she told him, "people make mistakes, it happens. We're here to help you, because we're sure this is not what you wanted, right?"

"Leave", he told them again in reply, staring at her with a mixture of fear and dismay, "I don't have time for this, I'm a man of God, I don't need to listen to such strange accusations."

"Willow's right", Buffy tried to reason with him once more, "we're here to help you, we can help you, but only if you—"

"I said leave!" the priest suddenly barked, flinging up his arm; and moments later, they both felt a tremendously strong, invisible force hit them, startled cries escaping both women as they were flung backwards, with Willow landing on the carpet in the middle aisle with a low thud while Buffy hit one of the benches with a loud crash, hard enough to make it tumble over with her and hit the one right behind it, causing another tremendous din to echo through the church.

"You should have left when I told you to", the priest groaned, his hands trembling as he raised them again, as if he was struggling against his own arms, "he won't let you… Go, please, go!" Groaning, dazed, Willow shook her head as she struggled to come to her feet; she felt another build-up of magic coming from the priest, her eyes going wide as she somehow managed to fling herself aside in the last moment, the spell hitting the carpet instead of her with another thumping sound, the elder man snarling in anger as he realized that he had missed.

"Hold still", he commanded in a voice which wasn't his own, darkness filling his eyes; and with horror, Willow realized that she wasn't looking at a mere priest anymore, but at a man the demon he had made a pact with had taken over, her blood running cold as she realized what he might do to Buffy and her now – before the door leading into the church flew open and Pat stood there, just needing a moment to realize what was going on, with the priest standing there and glaring, Buffy lying on a fallen over bench and Willow on the ground in the middle aisle, both of them looking dazed.

Upon her dramatic entrance, the priest looked up at her, giving her a chance to see the darkness in his eyes; giving her best to ignore how uneasy being in a church made her feel, the demon snarled back at him as he bared his teeth at her and started moving, making her way down the middle aisle with fast, long strides, a queasy feeling beginning her stomach and increasing with every step she took.

"Careful", she heard Willow groan, the redhead still fighting hard to get to her feet, "he's using magic, he's powerful…"

"You have no idea how powerful", Andras' voice told her, his gaze briefly flickering from Pat to her and then back to the demon, "but I won't need much of that power for her. Merely being in here is making her sick, isn't it, little demon?"

"Not so sick that I can't kick your ass", Pat replied at once, her voice trembling just enough to let Willow notice; she had just a moment to give her a worried look, then the priest threw yet another spell, aimed at the taller woman this time and forcing her to duck behind the nearest bench, the spell hitting the wood and causing splinters to fly everywhere, the witch cursing herself as she realized how unprepared they were for this and asking herself how they were supposed to get out of this.


	16. Chapter 16

After just two minutes in the church, Pat felt like throwing up, sweat trickling down her cheeks as she crouched behind the wooden bench which had given her cover from the spell; she asked herself how much longer she'd be able to handle being in the church, for once not all too happy with her demonic side, then shrugging those thoughts off and telling herself that she could deal with this, especially if she had to for her loved one.

"You shouldn't have come here", the priest now told them, the darkness still swirling in his eyes, "this is between the priest and me, and our pact, it is none of your business."

"It is if you mess up our town with your walking dead", Pat argued back, coming to her feet again, keeping her eye on the man so she could dive back into cover the moment it'd look as if he'd fire another spell at her, "that's kinda in Buffy's job description, you know."

"Oh yes, the Slayer", the priest replied, with a roll of his black eyes, "interesting how one measly spell was enough to put her out of order."

"Not out of order yet", Buffy groaned, struggling to her feet again, ignoring the ache in her back where she had hit the hard wood, "and now leave this poor man alone, I doubt this is what he wanted when he made that deal with you."

"It's part of the deal that I can take control whenever it is necessary", Andras shrugged in reply, smiling at her, "but your concern for him is very touching."

Glaring at him, Buffy moved to the demon's side, both of them keeping their eyes on his hands in case he would throw another spell at them any moment; for a second, the Slayer asked herself why he wasn't doing exactly that, then shrugged it off, giving him yet another glare as she clenched her fists.

"Quite a bit of a moral dilemma here, right?" the priest smiled, "you know that beating him up won't help you with defeating me, you'll just harm an innocent man who made a bad choice."

"Show yourself then instead of possessing others", Buffy suggested in reply, with yet another glare, "then we will harm the right person."

"Oh, I'd love to", the priest replied, smirking sardonically as he went on, "but here in this special venue? I doubt that would make it a fair fight, it'd surely have disastrous results for my health. Just like for your demon friend here."

Not able to withstand the temptation, Buffy briefly glanced at the demon at her side, concern filling her the moment she got a good look at her – she was sweating profusely, and her face was so pale that it made the blonde wonder if she'd faint any moment, her throat working visibly, prompting her to ask herself if she was close to throwing up.

Then, before she could ponder this any further, the priest let out a low groan at the altar, the darkness vanished from his eyes and his legs gave in beneath him; he slumped down to the carpeted ground and remained there motionless, the sight startling both Buffy and Willow into letting out surprised gasps.

Her dazedness forgotten, Willow came to her feet, momentarily torn between checking on the fallen priest and making sure her partner was alright; then, Buffy started hurrying to the elder man and she decided that one person was enough to make sure he was okay, thus making her way to the demon quickly, concern written all over her face as she asked her if she was alright.

"No", the taller woman panted in reply, "can we please go outside, or I'm gonna puke right here on the carpet."

"Poor you", the redhead showed sympathy, giving her another worried glance, "come on, we better get you out of here then…"

"Wait", Buffy called out to them, to the surprise of both the witch and the demon picking the priest up on her arms, "I guess he could need some fresh air as well, he's out cold. Willow, any idea why that happened?"

"Probably because Andras retreated", Willow gave back, wrapping one arm around the taller woman's face when she saw her stagger momentarily, making sure she wouldn't end up falling flat on her face after all, "that can be a side effect if demonic possession ends abruptly, and Andras apparently left quite fast."

"I wonder why", Buffy mumbled as she made her way to the door with the unconscious priest in her arms, Willow and Pat following her a bit slower since the black haired woman was quite wobbly on her feet, looking back over her shoulder when she was the one to answer her. "Because this is a church, and I guess even when he possesses a priest, he feels effects similar to the ones I'm dealing with right now."

"Poor him", Buffy replied sarcastically, making the demon smile weakly; then, they reached the door and Willow had to let go of her partner so she could open the door, flinching when she heard a low thud behind herself, finding the taller woman down on her knees when she turned around to look at her.

"I'll be okay", Pat grunted the moment she felt the redhead's gaze on her, "just this stupid church… Once I'm back outside, I'll be fine…"

"One of the bad parts of being a demon, I guess", Buffy commented as she carried the priest outside, giving the taller woman a worried glance; nodding, Willow hurried back to her girlfriend's side and helped her back to her feet, then led her outside, making her way to the bench with her and told her to sit down there, giving her a calming smile as she took the seat next to her and started caressing her hair while Buffy lowered the still knocked out priest on the bench at her side.

"Well", she then stated, looking at the unconscious man, "now we know for sure it was him. I just wonder why."

"Maybe he'll tell us once he woke up", Willow shrugged, moving her hand from the demon's hair to her back, glad to see that some colour was returning to Pat's face, "now, at least, he can't deny it anymore and tell us that he doesn't know what we're talking about."

"Let's hope he'll see reason now", Pat muttered, "and won't hide away in his church again, because I'm not going in there once more if I can't avoid it."

"I wouldn't let you anyway", Willow told her at once, smiling when the taller woman raised an eyebrow at her, "and now don't look at me like that, but that can't be good for you. For a moment, I thought you'd puke in there, or faint, or maybe even both."

"Trust me, for a while, I thought the same", Pat gave back with a sigh, making the redhead smile at her again; then, the priest groaned next to the demon, and they both focused on him, the elder man opening his eyes a few moments later and looking around in confusion, frowning when he realized that he wasn't in his church anymore, but on the bench in front of it.

"It happened again, didn't it", he sighed before any of the three women had a chance to say something, "he took over."

"…yes", Buffy confirmed after a moment, surprised about this unexpected turn of events – after all, she had been expecting the priest to go on denying what he had done, even after they had seen clear evidence that it had been him.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid", he muttered to himself, then sighed once more as he sat up straight on the bench and ran one hand over his bald head, "I of all people should know nothing good could ever have come from doing this… But I was weak, and blinded by my pride, and so I gave in when he came to me…"

"Shouldn't you, as a man of God, know that making deals with demons is a bad idea?" Buffy wanted to know in reply, frowning at him, "I mean, no offense, but what did you expect to happen?"

"Well, I surely didn't expect the demon to bring back the dead!" the priest replied, having the audacity to sound offended, "when he came to me, he never said anything about that!"

"What did you ask him for?" Willow asked, deciding not to comment on how stupid it was to make a deal with a demon, especially for someone who really should know better, "what did he offer you?"

"Why do you know so much about this?" the priest asked her instead of answering her question, eying her curiously, "it seems as if you are very well informed about what happened?"

"It's kind of my job", Buffy was the one to answer this, the elder man's gaze focusing on her in reply, "don't spread the word on this, but I'm the Slayer."

She had expected a variety of expressions, ranging from a blank stare to a confused "You are who?"; what she hadn't been expecting was that the priest gave her a startled look, sounding awed when he replied with "The Chosen One?", suddenly unable to take his eyes off her.

"You heard of me?" she gave back, sounding so stunned that it made the elder man smile; he nodded, then sighed, looking glum again when he answered her question. "Yes… the demon warned me of you. He said you might seek me out, try to talk me out of the deal I made with him…"

"That's exactly what I'm going to do", Buffy nodded, smirking slightly, "even though I'm not sure we can do anything about that deal. Willow?"

"Not sure, either", the witch shrugged, noticing how the priest glanced at the hand she still had resting on Pat's back, but not caring much about what he might think, figuring that he was the last person who had any right to criticise her after what he had done, "I'll have to look that up. And also find a way to stop Andras from taking over again."

"Let's go then", Buffy smiled, with renewed enthusiasm now that they had found the one responsible for the whole mess and he was willing to accept their help, "and hit the books."

"I was afraid you'd say that", Pat sighed, then came to her feet, prompting Willow to do the same; she grasped the taller woman's hand, prompting the priest to give them another glance, with a raised eyebrow this time, then the group started moving, making their way to Giles' home after Buffy had called ahead to make sure he was there, the Watcher already waiting for them with a bunch of books when they arrived there.


	17. Chapter 17

"Nice to meet you", Giles greeted the priest after he had introduced himself as Father Murray to the Brit, "please, have a seat, I take it you know why you are here?"

"Yes, of course", Murray replied, making himself comfortable on one of the armchairs while Buffy took the other one and the couple sat down on the couch, earning yet another look from the elder man, both Willow and Pat noticing this time, "I was foolish enough to make a deal with a demon, and now you are here to stop this… madness."

"Exactly", the Watcher nodded, smiling, "and have no fear, we've dealt with such situations before, I am sure we'll be able to help you."

"I hope so", the priest sighed, looking at him unhappily, "I find it hard to believe now that I was silly enough to make a pact with a demon… but my despair was overwhelming when he came to me."

"Which is why he did come to you", Willow pointed out, holding back a smirk when she felt Pat's hand grasp hers and noticed the elder man watching the movement with just enough of a frown to let it be visible, "this demon seeks out people in despair and uses this for his own agenda."

"Of course he does", Murray muttered in reply, "that's why he's a demon and not an angel, an angel would have helped me."

"What were you despairing about?" Giles wanted to know before the witch could reply anything to that, "this might be useful when we start looking up ways to banish this demon again."

"I was despairing about the godlessness of this world", Murray gave back at once, holding the Brit's gaze, "my church was emptying more and more, sin is everywhere and even accepted by society, and people turn away from God… how could I not despair?"

With those words, he threw another glance at the couple and at their joined hands, and clearly, Pat now had enough of this, letting out a low huff before she spoke up, making the elder man look at her in surprise, obviously not having expected her to say anything.

"Alright, look", she said quite sharply, prompting Willow to give her hand a hopefully calming squeeze, "obviously, you have some kind of problem with our relationship, but you can keep your dirty looks and your opinion about it to yourself, unless you want to solve this whole mess on your own."

"Pat", Giles scolded her before Murray could try to defend himself, even though the defence would have been quite useless, "you know we can't just abandon this man, even if we don't share his morals and opinions."

"I can", the demon shrugged in reply, "demon, remember? I have no problem with—"

"Demon!" Murray interrupted her, with a surprisingly high voice; and before anyone else could react, he had pulled out his crucifix from beneath his robe and was ramming it forward, causing the taller woman to flinch back with a curse until she was almost vanishing between the couch cushions, knowing what would happen if the cross should touch her skin – even after doing good deeds for years, her demonic nature still was affected negatively by all kinds of religious symbols and buildings.

"Hey!" Willow snapped at him while Buffy moved with stunning speed, grabbing the cross and snatching it away from him, even Giles glaring at the other man, moving forward to push him back into his seat surprisingly harshly and making him look up at him.

"You're free to your morals, and opinions", the Brit told their guest as he gave him a hard look, "but I will not tolerate any sort of attacks on members of our group."

"But…" Murray tried, only to fall silent when Willow glared at him as well, her voice just as strict as Giles' when she was the one to speak up now. "No buts. We are willing to help you, all of us are, but if you shove a cross into my girlfriend's face again, we'll have to rethink that willingness."

"…sorry", the priest muttered after a moment, "but surely you'll understand I find it hard to trust a demon after Andras turned my words against me."

"You can trust her", Willow reassured him while Pat sat up straight again and glared at him, her angry gaze prompting the witch to put a calming hand on her back again, "she's on our side. Now, we should get to work so we can solve this whole mess."

"Indeed", Giles agreed at once, Murray just nodding with a slight sulk on his face, "I already found some books which might be useful, so let's begin."

And with those words, he started handing out books, ignoring the frown on Murray's face when he got a chance to see the titles and topics of said books, not trying to give him one though; and so, the priest just could sit there and watch as they all started to leaf through their volumes, looking for a spell or ritual which might help with getting rid of the demon he had made a deal with.

"Hey", Buffy perked up after half an hour had passed in silence, the only sounds being the soft rustling of pages being turned, "Willow, check this out, do you think this spell would help?"

With those words, she handed her book to the witch, pointing at the spell she had found; accepting the book, the redhead quickly read through it, then smiled and nodded, placing the book on the table in front of her before she looked at the priest, giving her best to sound friendly when she told him what Buffy had found.

"This spell will, if it works, keep Andras from taking control of your body again", she let the priest know, "but you should be warned, he of course will notice and might try to stop me from casting it fully, or try to get payback for this afterwards."

"How?" the priest wanted to know, frowning when Willow shrugged, hoping he wouldn't freak out when she replied. "There are numerous ways for a demon like him to disturb a spell, and I suppose he also has minions he can send after us, but we know how to handle such things."

"Witchcraft and demons", Murray mumbled in reply, not looking all too happy, "I'm not sure that using more dark arts like these will help with defeating yet another demon."

"I am not using dark arts", the witch protested at once, now getting annoyed again, finding it hard to believe that this man would react that way to people who wanted to help him, even though she realized that it might be hard for him to accept this due to his own believes, "strictly white witching here. And as we told you, you can trust Pat, she's on our side."

"…fine", Murray sighed after a moment, making the redhead smile at him briefly – before she looked at her partner and asked her to step outside with her for a moment, earning a surprised look before the demon nodded and got up from her seat.

"I didn't want to discuss this in front of that priest", she explained the moment the couple had stepped outside and the door had been closed behind them, "but… if Andras does try to interrupt the spell, it might get quite nasty."

"Nasty how?" Pat wanted to know, frowning, not liking where this was going, "you mean as in, dangerous for you?"

"Maybe", Willow admitted after a moment, hurriedly speaking when she saw the taller woman's frown deepen, "but we don't even know this will happen yet, so don't worry too much, okay? Just… Try to keep the spell for me to borrow your healing in mind, please?"

"And you don't want me to worry after telling me this?" Pat sighed as an answer, shaking her head briefly before she smiled wryly at her girlfriend, "now I'll worry for sure… But yeah, I'll keep that spell in mind, just in case… What's the worst he can do?"

"Not sure", Willow had to admit, making her partner frown once more, "when we tried to resurrect Buffy, it was quite creepy, with cuts appearing on my arms and I threw up a snake."

"Oh, well, if that's all", the demon replied, with so much sarcasm in her voice that it made the redhead giggle, "throwing up snakes, no big deal, right?"

"I'm sure it'll be okay", Willow reassured her partner, stepping closer to her so she could embrace her, smiling when immediately, the taller woman wrapped her arms around her as well, then bent down to kiss her tenderly, the sarcasm gone from her voice when she spoke up again.

"You better do that spell where that priest can't see you", she advised, her hands absent-mindedly, but tenderly caressing her back, "or who knows what ideas he might get about interrupting."

"Good point", Willow nodded after thinking about this for a moment, "but unfortunately, I can't put it into action because he has to be there when I cast the spell, or it won't work."

"Oh joy", the demon sighed in reply, then smirked slightly, a mischief glint in her good eye as she went on. "Can I grab him then while you do the spell so he won't disturb you?"

"Sure", the redhead giggled, making her partner's smirk widen, "just make sure he doesn't shove his cross into your face again."

"With the grip I'm gonna take him into, there's no way in Hell he can do that", Pat reassured her, making her giggle once more; then, she pulled the taller woman down for yet another kiss, momentarily forgetting the priest and his troubles waiting inside the house for them as it deepened, her feelings for the woman in her arms pushing everything else aside.


End file.
